» I 








I 











w W - 



'oB), 



- • 



A SERIES 



OF 



DISCOURSES, 



on 



FUNDAMENTAL RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS 



INCLUDING A 



PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE 



ON THE 



DIVINE REVELATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

BY THE REV. WILLIAM WINANS, D.D. 



Rightly dividing the word of truth. — St. Paul. 




EDITED BY THOMAS O. SUMMERS 

"7 



NASHVILLE, TENN. : 

PUBLISHED BY E. STEVENSON & P. A. OWEN 

r episcoi 
1855. 



_23/ £333 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855. 
BY E. STEVEXSOX & F. A. OWEX, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. 



TO 



THE MEMBERS 



OF THE 



HiffBiBfitppi Quintal €nhttuz 



OF THE 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 



Dear Brethren : — 

Your repeated requests to me, to prepare a volume of Sermons for 
publication, were necessary to inspire me with sufficient self-confidence to intrude 
upon the public with such a work. I deem it, therefore, fitting and proper, in an 
enterprise of so much temerity, in which I am engaged in compliance with your 
wishes, to throw before myself the segis of your patronage. With this view, as 
well as to give expression to my unfeigned regard for you, I respectfully dedicate 
the following Discourses to you; and am, 

Reverend and dear Brethren, 

Your affectionate Brother in Christ, 

WILLIAM WINANS. 
Centrevilk, Amite, Miss., February, 13, 1854. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Preface, vii 



»)* 



DISCOURSE I. 
The Scriptures, of the Old and New Testaments, a Revelation from God, 15 

DISCOURSE II. 

The Existence, Manner of Existence, Nature, and Perfections of God, 95 

DISCOURSE III. 
Trinity in Unity in the Godhead, ,.~ 136 

DISCOURSE IV. 
On the Creation of AUThings, , ? 167 

DISCOURSE V. 

Of the Creation of Man, and of his Obligations to the Creator, 202 

DISCOURSE VI. 

The Origin and Character of the Devil, and hi3 Enmity to Man 225 

DISCOURSE VII. 

The First Transgression of Man, and its Legal Consequences, 263 

DISCOURSE VIII. 
The Moral and Physical Consequences of Man's Original Transgression, 283 

DISCOURSE IX. 
The Incarnation of Deity in the Person of Jesus Christ, „. 309 

DISCOURSE X. 
Perfect Righteousness of the Life of Jesus Christ, 332 

DISCOURSE XI 
Death and Burial of Christ, ., "J62 



VI CONTENTS. 

DISCOURSE XII. 
Resurrection of Christ, 394 

DISCOURSE XIII. 
The Ascension of Christ into Heaven, and His Intercession for Man, 421 

DISCOURSE XIV. 
The Holy Ghost and His Offices affecting the Salvation of Man, , 453 

DISCOURSE XV. 
Repentance toward God, 488 

DISCOURSE XVI. 
Salvation by Faith in Christ Jesus, 5J5 

DISCOURSE XVII. 
The General Judgment, 550 



PREFACE. 



Prefaces to books are rarely profitable to the reader, in any- 
reasonable proportion to what they have cost the author in elabo- 
rating them. They are often not read at all , under the plausible 
pretext, that, if the works they herald be good, they need no master 
of ceremonies to procure them a reception — if otherwise, no flourish 
of introduction can commend them to favor. Still, custom imposes 
on an author the duty of sending an avant courier, to bespeak 
attention to his chief, and to describe to the public the appearance 
and prominent qualities of their coming visitant. Independently 
as I am wont to act, I have not quite sufficient hardihood to throw 
off the authority of custom in this particular. Besides, there really 
are some matters, in relation to the Discourses I am about to send 
out into the world, about which I should like to have a colloquial 
interview with the reader, before he shall take those Discourses in 
hand. 

I am well aware that religious Discourses are not the sort of litera- 
ture which commands general attention or excites general interest, 
I am also aware that there already are, in the libraries of the com- 
paratively few who take an interest in this species of literature, many 
works of this kind of such great worth as to render successful com- 
petition with them utterly hopeless, to one not much more highly 
favored than I can presume myself to be. Why, then, it will natu- 
rally be inquired, have you come forward, before the public, with 
such a contribution to its literature ? I answer : that though religious 
Discourses are not in general demand, there are many who find in 
them an interest greatly superior to that which they find in the most 
highly appreciated literature. And ought there not to be an appro- 
priate purveyance for moral tastes and appetences, which, though 
fcare in the world, are by no means injurious to the best interests of 
society ? Again, though it would require greatly superior talents 
and learning, to any to which I can lay claim, to produce religious 
Discourses that could hold successful competition with those of South, 
Massillon, Mason, and Chalmers, yet*, it is not impossible that my 



Vlll PREFACE. 

modes of thinking, and my style of expression, may so fall in with 
the peculiarities of mental and moral constitution, in many individuals, 
as to render my inferior instructions more useful, if not more admira- 
ble, to them than the instructions of these great masters of pulpit 
eloquence . Moreover, though there are Discourses extant on all the 
subjects embraced in my series, I am not aware that Discourses, on 
these subjects, are to be found published together, forming a system 
of related facts and doctrines, and exhibiting the inter-dependence 
of the several parts, as well as the relation of each part to the whole. 
This systematic arrangement of the fundamental doctrines and facts 
of Christianity, I conceived to be a matter of no inconsiderable 
importance. And this I have here attempted. 

But, notwithstanding these reasons for publishing a volume of 
religious Discourses, I should scarcely have had sufficient temerity to 
do it, had not the Mississippi Annual Conference, whose voice I have 
long been in the habit of regarding with much deference, officially 
and repeatedly expressed a conviction that I might thus subserve the 
interests of religion. A good many years ago, that body, by formal 
resolution, requested that I would prepare a volume of sermons for 
publication. So long as I had health and vigor to perform the duties 
of a preacher and pastor, I could never find leisure to comply with 
this request. But when, by a chronic affection of the throat, 1 was 
disqualified for the performance of these duties, and when the 
request of the Conference was repeated, at its session, in Clinton, 
La., in 1851, I resolved to attempt such a compliance. At my own 
instance, a Committee was appointed by the Conference, to examine 
my Discourses, as they should be prepared, and to decide upon their 
suitableness or unsuitableness for publication, under Conference 
patronage. Prompted thus, by a body which I regarded as wise and 
prudent, and under the inspection and control of a judiciously select- 
ed Committee of that body, I felt emboldened to enterprise what I 
should, without such prompting and guardianship, have regarded as 
incurring the imputation of rash temerity. Even with this encou- 
ragement and support, I sometimes feel no little misgiving as to the 
prudence of this venturous step. If I have unwarrantably tres- 
passed on the public, however, in consenting to appear as the author 
of a volume so grave in its character, that public will have the 
means of rebuking my presumption in the most effectual manner, 
with no more expenditure of means, in the infliction, than by 



PREFACE. IX 

refusing attention to these D iscourses. Not to patronize — not to read 
them, will be a chastisement fully adequate to any presumption 
implied in their publication. 

I could not hope to acquire fame, in a walk of literature so far 
from being popular, as that of religious Discourses, even though I 
could have been vain enough to imagine that I was competent to 
secure a place in the first rank of those who have published in the 
same line. How much less, when I knew that I could not sustain a 
respectable competition with writers of that class ! As little could 
I hope to derive pecuniary profit from such a publication. What 
motive, then, could have prompted me to the toil and hazard of such 
an enterprise ? I humbly submit that there was still one very effi- 
cient motive which might have actuated me in the matter — a desire 
to advance the interests of the highest order of truth. If I shall 
have failed in this, I feel that my failure will have been absolute. 
If, on the other hand, I shall, though but to a limited extent, have 
succeeded in advancing the interests of this truth, I shall consider 
myself amply compensated ; though neither fame nor pecuniary 
advantage shall have been promoted by the operation. For the 
advancement of those interests ever tends to promote the glory of God 
and the salvation and eternal happiness of mankind. Could I be 
assured of success in this particular, I should be abundantly satisfied, 
let the fate of my Discourses be, in other respects, what it mi'ght. 

Of the merits of my performance, I, most certainly, am not quali- 
fied to judge ; and, if I were, it would be altogether unbecoming 
in me to pronounce upon them. My utmost stretch of self-esteem 
will not allow me to suppose these Discourses to be above mediocrity. 
The style in which they are written can lay no claim to more than 
two advantages — perspicuity and force; and, to what extent its 
claim to these is valid, I can by no means determine. To elegance 
and ornament, it can advance no pretensions whatever. Individu- 
ality, if not originality, will, I think, be readily conceded to it. If it 
approach the peculiar style of any other speaker or writer, I am 
totally ignorant of the fact. I have attentively read the writings of 
many wise and good men, but, in my interpretations of religious 
doctrines and duties, I have not dared to follow any of them im- 
plicitly. Hence, the views which I have presented, of the subjects, 
treated of in the following Discourses, are strictly my own views — 
that is, they are views which I have derived from the sacred Scrip- 



X PREFACE. 

tures — the only authority to which I have felt it right to submit with 
unqualified deference. The opinions of wise and good men I have 
sufficiently respected, to subject to vigorous examination my own 
which conflicted with them. Farther than this, I could not regard 
them, without violating the injunction to "call no man on earth 
master." It will not, therefore, be thought strange that my opinions 
have sometimes been in conflict with those of even the Founder of 
my own sect, and with those of its most illustrious ministers, both 
in England and in this country. This cannot be charged to the 
account of arrogance and self-conceit, on any other supposition, than 
that which none will entertain — infallibility of judgment in those 
great and good men. They differed among themselves ; as indepen- 
dent thinkers among imperfect mankind may always be expected to 
do ; and, though vastly their inferior in general intelligence and 
learning, it may sometimes happen that the truth, which eluded their 
perspicacity and research, may have been rendered apparent to my 
understanding, by some peculiarity in the circumstances in which 
it was presented to my mind. 

The only authority to which, in matters of religion, a well instruct- 
ed Christian can implicitly defer, is that of the Holy Scriptures, as 
they are understood by himself. And, where the examination of their 
import has been careful, diligent, patient, and honest, though there 
may have been errors in the results obtained, those errors would never 
be of a kind to be fatal in the influence they should exert upon the 
course of the inquirer in the way of salvation. Satisfied that the 
only safe guide to religious truth, from first to last, is the revealed 
mind and will of God in the sacred Scriptures, I deemed it proper 
to prepare the way, for the series of Discourses, on fundamental 
religious subjects, which I was about to publish, by inserting a pre- 
liminary Discourse, on the Divine Revelation of the Old and New 
Testament Scriptures. An apology is, perhaps, due, for the attempt 
to compress, within the limits of a single Discourse, (though of un- 
usual length,) an argument, including so many points, and meeting 
so many and so various objections. I did think, however, that the 
gist of the argument could be presented within those limits ; and I 
made the attempt, with what success the reader must judge. 

The series of Discourses on fundamental religious subjects, con- 
tains sixteen in number. The two first are on the subject of Divine 
existence, having regard to whatever is proper or peculiar to that 



PREFACE. XI 

existence, including the Trinity in Unity. Nothing new or peculiar, 
except in the mode of presenting the subject, could be expected on 
themes so common among religious speakers and writers. So far 
as I know, the form of the argument, in support of the doctrine 
ascribing Trinity in Unity to the Deity, is altogether new. And it 
appears to me that this form is better calculated to enforce convic- 
tion of the truth of that doctrine than any other form of argument 
on the subject that I have ever seen. How successful I have been 
in bringing the force of this mode of argument to bear upon the 
point to be supported, must be left to others to judge. 

The second subject, treated of in this series, occupies two Dis- 
courses. That subject is Creation — creation in general, and the 
creation of man, in particular. In the view I have taken of crea- 
tion, I have disallowed the theories, which owe their chief support, 
perhaps their existence itself, to the facts, developed, or supposed 
to be developed, by geology. These facts, supposing them all to be 
real, do not appear to me to require a departure from what was, so 
recently, the almost universal interpretation of the Mosaic account 
of that first manifestation of Divine Wisdom, Goodness and Power. 
Some geological facts may be difficult to reconcile with that inter- 
pretation ; but, is it not entirely probable that the whole difficulty 
in the case arises from our ignorance of the changes, which, in the 
lapse of six thousand years, have been produced by the ordinary 
and extraordinary revolutions which, we know, are constantly 
occurring in one part of the globe or another ? Till we are well 
informed, in regard to these changes, any inferences we may draw, 
from the best established facts of geology, on the subject of Creation, 
must be as uncertain as those of ignorance, from very imperfectly 
understood facts, always are. The creation of Man had peculiar 
importance, in its connection with the other matters treated of in 
my series of Discourses; and therefore special attention has been 
bestowed upon it. It is peculiarly important, not merely in this 
relation, but from the intrinsic value of man, compared with other 
subjects of creation. 

The agency of the Devil, in breaking up the moral order which 
God had established in the world, in introducing evil and death 
into the world and in involving man especially in guilt and ruin, was 
too important to allow that his history, character and relation to 
man should be omitted from the series. It has become but too 



211 PREFACE. 

frequent to call in question the personal existence of this fallen, 
malignant spirit, and to impugn, as a relic of middle-age superstition, 
all recognition of one or the other. But, if there be superstition in 
the matter, it dates back, far beyond the middle ages, and numbers 
among its most doting votaries the Saviour and His apostles. In 
such company, I am well content to endure the scorn or the pity 
of Sadducean R-ationalistics ; who, scorning dependence on Divine 
teaching, assume to themselves a competency, not merely for self- 
direction, but for the correction of prophets, apostles, and even Christ 
himself. The personal existence and agency of the .Devil, it is 
believed, are as clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures as any other 
fact or doctrine whatever ; and, so malignant is he towards man, and 
so mischievous to him is the agency he exerts, that I thought it of 
no little importance to bring them fairly into view. 

The original transgression of the law of God by man, and its 
baleful consequences, on his legal relation to God, and on the moral 
and physical condition of man, occupy two of the serial Discourses — 
one on the transgression itself, and its consequences on man's legal 
relation to God — the other, upon the moral and physical conse- 
quences of that transgression on man's condition. This event, so 
disastrous in its character, so important to be known, in order to 
the vindication of the infinitely wise and Almighty Creator, in whose 
works so much evil, both moral and physical, is known to exist, 
and so intimately related to the great plan of Redemption by Jesus 
Christ, required an extended notice. This I have rendered to it ; 
endeavoring, as accurately as possible, to conform the views I have 
advanced on the subject to the teachings of Divine Revelation. 

The plan of Redemption and Salvation, by Jesus Christ, form the 
subject of six Discourses. These, in the order in which they occur, 
are on the Incarnation of the Divinity in humanity, in the person of 
Jesus Christ — The Character of Christ in the days of His flesh — 
His Death and Burial — His Resurrection from the dead — His 
Ascension into Heaven, and His perpetual Advocacy and Intercession 
for man — and the Holy Ghost, and His offices, affecting the Salvation 
of man. To me it appeared that all the matters discussed, in the 
six Discourses, were essentially component parts in the great scheme 
of human Redemption and Salvation ; and I have, consequently, 
included them all in the view I have presented of that gracious 
scheme — assigning to each what appeared to me its proper position, 



PREFACE. Zlll 

and the prominence it ought to have in that scheme. I am well 
aware that some of the opinions I have advanced, particularly in 
the first of these six Discourses, are inconsistent with those gener- 
ally entertained by writers, with whom I am in cordial agreement 
on most subjects of a religious character; but, as I was entirely 
satisfied of the correctness of those opinions, I felt it my duty to 
express them freely and confidently. Those who differ from me, 
will and ought to indulge in the same freedom and confidence, after 
having, as I certainly have done, carefully examined the Scripcures 
that have a bearing upon the subjects of those opinions, with an 
honest and earnest endeavor to make that examination in a spirit of 
candor, and with freedom from prepossession. 

The two next Discourses in the series — on Repentance toward 
God, and on Salvation by Faith in Christ Jesus — are designed to 
exhibit the mode in which the personal transgressor may obtain an 
individual interest in the plan of salvation, and thus secure to him- 
self eternal life. That plan is absolute, effectual and final, so far 
as regards the guilt of the original transgression — and so far, too, 
as respects the eternal well-being of all who die, without having 
personally offended God. But, salvation and eternal life to personal 
transgressors, are contingent and conditional. And, none but such 
as repent, and, where the instructions of the gospel enable them to 
do so, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, have any ground to hope 
for that salvation and eternal life. The view which I have taken of 
Repentance towards God, is by no means the common one ; but, as 
I persuade myself that it is strictly scriptural, I have no hesitation 
in advancing it. 

The last Discourse in the series, is on the General Judgment, 
This great and exciting subject, I have endeavored to discuss, with 
the calmness of sober investigation, and at the same time, with the 
solemnity and earnestness which befitted a theme so grave and of 
such universal concernment. The reader will not see more clearly 
than I have depressingly felt, the great inadequacy of my powers 
to the magnitude and grandeur of my subject. But, feeble as I 
felt my attempt to be, I did not feel at liberty to shrink from making 
it. Too much is at stake, to allow a sense of insufficiency to 
impose silence, in regard to a matter in which every child of man is 
so deeply and eternally interested ; and which, when even very 
imperfectly represented, is so well calculated to exercise a moral 



XIV PREFACE. 

influence upon those to whom the representation is earnestly made ; 
for, if the conviction can be wrought in the human mind, that the 
whole of life and character will be judicially investigated, before 
an assembled universe, that rewards will be distributed to all men, 
according as their works shall have been, whether good or bad, 
and that those rewards will constitute the final, the eternal doom 
of those to whom they are appropriated, there are few who will 
not, at least for the time being, adopt the poet's reflection, " How 
careful, then, ought I to live ! " And this awakened reflection may 
lead the sinner to inquire, "what shall I do, to be saved?" and 
may prompt him to " seek the Lord, while He may be found, and to 
call upon Him, while He is near ;" as it may stir up the Christian 
to renewed diligence, in "working out his own salvation," and in 
striving to "make his calling and election sure." 

These Discourses are not, in the common acceptation of the 
term, sermons. There is, in them, too much discussion, too much 
argument, and too little movement to admit them to that classification. 
Some of them are entirely too long for pulpit utterance — rarely, 
indeed, is a spoken discourse better than barely tolerable that exceeds 
an hour in its delivery. But the case is different with those which 
are to be read ; as the reader, if his powers of attention fail, in the 
course of its perusal, can lay it down, and resume his attention to 
it, when his weariness shall have passed off. I have great doubt 
whether I could write discourses sufficiently declamatory in their 
character for public utterance, to a promiscuous audience. Be this 
as it may, I certainly could not accomplish the purpose contemplated 
in my series on fundamental religious subjects, in such a style of 
composition. To many readers, this circumstance will, I appre- 
hend, be anything but agreeable ; and, on the whole, I shall cer- 
tainly not be surprised to learn that my book is not very extensively 
a favorite. I must, however, in any event, comfort myself with 
the assurance, I feel that " I have done what I could " — the best 
I could. With this consoling assurance, I devote my humble effort 
to God, invoking His blessing upon it ; and resign it to the reader, 
praying of him, a candid, if not an indulgent consideration of it — 
and this, as well for his own sake, as out of justice and kindness 
to the 

AUTHOR. 



DISCOURSE I. 

THE SCRIPTURES, OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS, A 
REVELATION FROM GOD.* 

" Thy Word is Truth."— John xvii, 17. 

Accustomed, for many years, to consider the Bible as 
being the Word of God, and to believe that this persua- 
sion was not only well founded, but very generally enter- 
tained, at least among those with whom our ministerial 
lot has been cast, it required a special invitation, together 
with the assurance that the thing was needed, to induce 
us to attempt a formal defense of the claims of Scripture 
to be the Word of God. It would require much more 
time than can be employed in a single Discourse, to bring 
into view all the various matters which belong to this 
important subject. The argument must be greatly gener- 
alized, to bring it within the most extended limits allowable 
in a spoken Discourse. Well for us, if we shall not 
weaken the force of that argument, by too much gener- 
alization. 

It will be necessary, in the outset, to assume several 
important positions, as either axiomatic in their character, 
or, at least, as not requiring to be proved to this audience ; 
and, we assume that, 

1. There is a Supreme Being, whom we call God; who 
made everything that exists, and who is infinitely perfect 
in his nature. 

* Delivered at Woodville, Miss., 1839. by request of a committee of Skeptics. 
2 * 17 



18 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

2. Man is capable of moral and religious obligations ; 
and is responsible, to the extent of his capabilities, to the 
authority of his Creator. 

3. Man ought to worship or do homage to his Creator. 

4. God has power, if He see proper to do so, to com- 
municate to intelligent creatures a knowledge of Himself, 
and of His will, so far as it is important for them to be 
informed in regard to them ; and, 

5. Any communication, coming from God to His 
creatures, through the medium of either angelic or human 
instrumentality, must be attested by a miracle, or miracles 
■ — by the performance of works independent of or above 
the operation of natural causes. 

In the present Discourse, we design to attempt the proof 
of the following propositions, viz: 

I. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are a 
Revelation from God' — that they are the Word of God; and, 

II. That these Scriptures are the Truth, i. e. that they 
represent truly the Divine character, and the nature, con- 
dition, obligations, duties and capabilities of man. 

I. In proving that the Scriptures, of the Old and New 
Testaments, are a Revelation from God, we shall attempt 
to make it appear, 

1. That there was a probability, a priori, that God 
would reveal a knowledge of Himself, and of His will to 
man; and, 

(1.) It was important that man should know the char- 
acter and the requirements of the Being, whom he was 
obliged to worship, and by whose will he was required to 
regulate his own actions. "Ye worship ye know not 
what," conveys as severe a reflection as any that could be 
-cast upon a rational being ; for, to worship an unknown 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 19 

God involves, in the first place, the hazard that we may 
be worshiping a being not worthy of our homage ; and, 
in the second place, the danger that we may worship Him 
who is worthy, improperly — with rites incongruous to His 
character and offensive to His disposition — in either case, 
acting an unreasonable part. If we worship God at all, 
we shall be certain to worship Him inappropriately or 
offensively, unless we are informed of His character ; for, 
He requires of us, and, in the nature of things, must 
require a reasonable service ; and, no service can be 
reasonable, the fitness of which to its object is not under- 
stood. Of such a service, the Supreme Ruler of the 
universe would and must say, " Who hath required this at 
your hands ? " 

And, if it is manifestly important for man to be informed 
of the character of God, in order to worship Him accept- 
ably, it is still more clearly manifest that His will should 
be known by man, in order to His being obeyed by man. 
Nothing could be more utterly absurd than to suppose 
that man is under obligation to obey God, unless His will 
is made known to man. The absurdity is so manifest, 
that it could hardly be rendered more striking by argu- 
ment or illustration. But, to fix attention upon this 
absurdity let us suppose a parallel case. Suppose, then, 
that the government of this State should hold every citizen 
obliged, under the most awful sanctions, to a strict obe- 
dience to all the enactments of the Legislature, and, that, 
nevertheless, none cf these enactments were published to 
the knowledge of these citizens. This would be strictly 
analogous to the supposition, whose unreasonableness we 
are urging, viz: that it is the duty of man to obey God, 
and that man is not to be informed of His will. Indeed, 



20 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

the ability to know what is duty, is indispensable to the 
very notion of obligation; and, therefore, either we are 
not under obligation to obey God, or it is of paramount 
importance, that we have it in our power to know what He 
requires at our hands. 

(2.) It was probable, a priori, that God would reveal 
His character and His will to man; because, without such 
a revelation, man cannot obtain an adequate knowledge 
of either. This point, we know, is a debated one, but, a very 
partial acquaintance with the history of mankind, must, we 
think, put it beyond question. The most cultivated and 
refined nations, as Egypt, Greece and Rome, destitute of a 
revelation of God and his will, display an ignorance of both, 
which would be disreputable to a people having the 
advantage of such a revelation. In fact, a child, of ten 
years old, under the instruction of that revelation, has 
more worthy and rational conceptions of the Divine 
character, more clear and extended views of moral and 
religious duties, than the wisest philosophers, who 
diligently inquired into both matters, but without the aid 
of such a revelation. When we see such men as Socrates 
and Cicero devoting themselves, most assiduously, to the 
study of moral and religious philosophy — when we hear 
one of them declaring that "no man could know what God 
required, unless he were taught by a teacher sent from 
heaven ;" and, when we behold the other, as the utmost 
he could do in the case, desperately resolving that " he 
would not be convinced, that an important religious dogma 
was an error, even though he were convinced," and recol- 
lect that that truth is firmly believed by every child under 
gospel instruction, how can we any longer doubt the 
correctness of the position now under consideration? 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 21 

Surely, if, in enlightened Greece and Rome, such men as 
Socrates and Cicero could only thus darkly guess at 
religious truth, man, without a revelation from God, cannot, 
in less favorable circumstances, and without their talents 
and research, know either the character or the will of God! 
And how should man obtain this knowledge ? True, " The 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
doth show His handiwork " — evincing His Godhead, His 
wisdom and His power. But, these attributes may be 
formidable as well as adorable. If treacherous, false, or 
cruel, how extremely dreadful would be a being of such 
wisdom and power, as are displayed in the works of God ! 
And, what assurance have we, from the condition of the 
world or of any creature in it, that God is faithful, true 
and good? Surely, we cannot infer these attributes from 
the characters which we find impressed upon the creatures 
which His hands have formed, or from the condition in 
which we find those creatures placed! In the best states 
of general society that have ever existed, who is prepared 
to say that there was a predominance of fidelity, truth 
and goodness, over their antagonist qualities? And, who 
does not know that disappointment and sorrow are abundant 
ingredients in the cup of human life ? Seen, as they are, 
without information how they became such, the character 
and condition of mankind have puzzled the ingenuity of 
those who would fain have considered the Creator of all 
wise, and great, and true, and good; and indeed, without 
the aid of revelation, we must either withhold from the 
Deity the ascription of these attributes, or consider the 
character and condition of man as anomalies or incon- 
gruities, that cannot be reconciled with them. 

Equally at a loss should we find ourselves to ascertain 



22 THE SCRIPTURES A HEVELATION FROM GOD. 

a source, whence to derive a knowledge of religious and 
moral duty, were we deprived of Revelation. It is true 
that there are some moral duties so indispensable to the 
well-being of society, that it appears the Creator, in his 
care for the safety and happiness of man, has impressed a 
conviction of their obligation upon almost every human 
mind - — at least, their obligation can be reasoned out, from 
the relations of men in society — from their mutual 
dependence and necessities. But this is far from being 
the case with every moral duty, which meets the full 
consent of every mind to which it is made apparent. 
Borne such duties there are which were never guessed at, 
till they were revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Of this 
kind of duties, we shall mention but one — meekness, or 
forbearance towards offenders, and the forgiveness of 
injuries; or, in one word, abstinence from revenge. No 
moral duty is more important to the well-being of society 
than this — none more forcibly compels the approbation of 
every sober thinker to whom it has been made known ; 
and, yet, no philosophy of man, no moral research ever 
led to the discovery that this belonged to the code of 
morals, obligatory on man I On the contrary, codes of 
morals, as well as codes of honor, have existed, which 
made revenge a duty — a social duty! What is now called 
"the code of honor," so considers it — not, indeed, a moral 
duty — this, in Christendom, would hardly be possible; 
but a duty of higher obligation than merely moral duty — 
but a duty, transcending in its claims the laws of one's 
country, moral obligation, and the laws of God I And, if 
this is so in the circumstances of moral enlightenment which 
surround us, what might justly be expected in the case of 
those to whom the peculiar moral teaching of the Gospel 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 23 

has never come? Revenge, immitigable revenge, is 
nourished on principle by such, and handed down, from 
father to son, as a sacred, indispensable duty. The Word 
of God, alone, of all the moral teachers the world has 
ever seen, inculcates that meekness, which is the only 
guarantee of the perpetuity of peace in society, or of its 
return, when the violence of human passion has banished 
it thence. It required Divine teaching, then, to bring to 
light this moral duty at least; and it was equally necessary 
that there should be Divine instruction respecting the 
sanctions of moral duties. Neither the skill of man, nor 
his research, could ever discover motives, for the enforce- 
ment of moral duties, that could be relied on as effective, 
against strong inducements to the contrary. Neither fear 
of punishment, nor the excellence and beauty of moral 
rectitude, affords any certain protection against the assaults 
of well-adjusted and powerful temptations. Only a strong 
assurance of the Divine displeasure, against a breach of 
moral obligation, and of the Divine complaisance towards 
moral rectitude, can assure the performance of moral 
duty in all circumstances ; and this assurance comes only 
through a revelation from God — it cannot be reasoned 
out from any premises presented by philosophy. The 
knowledge of effective sanctions is as important as the 
knowledge of the rules of life they enforce ; and, therefore, 
as effective sanctions of moral requirements cannot be 
invented or discovered by man, it was highly probable, if 
on no other account, that God would make a revelation 
to man. 

And, if man, in the utmost exercise of his own faculties, 
and by the most diligent research, is unable to discover 
the moral duties to which he is obliged, or the sanctions 



24 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

necessary to their enforcement, how much less may he 
hope to attain, by unassisted efforts, to the knowledge of 
the religious duties which are incumbent on him ? The 
former are appropriate to relations that lie broad before 
him ; and might, therefore, by a reason unperverted and 
clearsighted, be ascertained : whereas, the latter regards 
relations which can be very imperfectly known, only by 
means of Revelation. The religious history of the world is, 
accordingly, a melancholy exhibition of pitiable weakness 
in the human understanding, and of an almost universal 
tendency to the grossest and most degrading errors, in 
regard to the service due from man to God. Two classes 
of errors, on this subject, have divided the world, untaught 
by revelation, between them — one assigning to man the 
duty of religious thought, as the whole of the service he 
owes to God — the other making religious duly to consist 
exclusively in forms and ceremonies. Both are errors; 
inasmuch as neither of them occupies the entire capa- 
bilities of man for religious service : whereas, the relation 
of creature manifestly devotes all the faculties to the 
service of the Creator. 

But, besides these general errors, how utterly unworthy 
of an infinitely perfect Being have been the details of 
every system of religious duty, not derived from Revela- 
tion, that has ever been adopted in the world ! So puerile, 
so cruel, so obscene were the rites and ceremonies adopted 
in those systems, that God was far more honored in their 
neglect than in their observance. And, was it not proba- 
ble that an infinitely benevolent Being, who rightly claimed 
the services of man, should pity him, in the hopelessness 
of his errors, and teach him, by a revelation directly from 
Himself, in what manner He required His rational and 



THE SCEJPTUKES A REVELATION FEOM GOD. 25 

moral creatures to serve and to honor Him ? Had there 
been no other inducement to such a Revelation, this, we 
think, would have been sufficient to prevail with Him, 
" who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all 
His works." 

But, has He made such a Revelation to man ? We 
shall now attempt to make it appear that He has. In 
doing this, we observe, — 

2. That we have a volume, or, more properly speaking, 
a collection of volumes, which claims to be such a revela- 
tion. In part, these are the most ancient of all writings 
extant; and, with the exception of what is called the 
Book of Genesis, which may be considered as an introduc- 
tory treatise, professing to have been written contempora- 
neously with the events recorded and with the revelations 
reported in them. This collection is just so far historical 
as serves to connect together, and show the various 
occasions on which the revelations reported were made, 
and the influence they exerted upon the character and 
condition of the world. The various portions of this 
collection are to be found in almost every written language 
of man — written and printed in every age, and preserved 
with unexampled care, by various sects, often bitter in 
their hostility towards each other; and, notwithstanding 
many various readings of the text, both in manuscripts 
and printed versions, no important doctrine has been lost 
or perverted — no serious discrepancy of representation, 
in regard to any such doctrine, has found its way into any 
of these versions and manuscripts. The same character 
of God — the same history of creation — the same 
account of the Origin, Fall, Redemption and Destiny of 
man — the same religious and moral requirements are 



26 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

found, in their integrity, in every copy, of both manu- 
scripts and versions. More copies of the original and of 
versions from it have probably been made of the Bible, 
than of all other books put together ; and, yet, the integ- 
rity of no other ancient writing has, by any means, been 
so well maintained as that of this collection of Sacred 
Writings. We are, then, authorized to consider the 
Scriptures we have to be genuine, i. e., to be the writings 
which, from Moses to St. John, claimed to be repositories of 
a Divine Revelation. Let it be remarked, that the Bible 
was not all written by one man, or at one time. Moses 
is the reputed author of the first five books. It is as 
certain as any thing so ancient could be, that they have 
been in existence from the time in which he lived ; and, 
it is equally certain, that their authorship was imputed to 
him coeval with their existence. It is also certain, that 
the other books or tracts, of which the Scriptures are 
composed, did not exist contemporaneously with the 
writing of these; because these are referred to as having 
previously existed, and as having contributed to the 
bringing about of the states of things, and to the pre- 
paring of the way for those Revelations, which are the 
subject-matter of those other books. And all this is done 
with so much naivete that it is impossible not to consider 
the reference to the previously existing writings, as sug- 
gested by the fact of their existence, and the influence 
they have exerted, and not as the planned and invented 
reference of an artful writer of romance, much less the 
studied adjustment of an impostor. Allowing, then, that 
the Bible is a collection of a series of writings, accumulated 
through a lapse of more than fifteen hundred years, how 
greatly would the difficulty of preserving consistency, in 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 27 

an imposture, have been increased by every new fact 
written, and by every year added in completing the series ! 
It is next to impossible for a single impostor to maintain 
such consistency, in a work of any serious magnitude ; 
and every additional writer, engaged in the imposture, as 
well as every change in manners and customs, increases 
the difficulty. Truth would be consistent in any number 
of hands, and through any changes of circumstances; but, 
this could hardly be the case with error; and, if it should 
be so, the art, the effort, the caution, which would secure 
such consistency, would be visible at almost every step. 
Such consistency would be attended by a punctilious 
agreement, in the use always of the same words — in an 
exact observance of the same aspects, attitudes, and 
positions, and in a servile recollection of the same circum- 
stances: whereas, truth, preserving consistency in the 
main tenor of the narrative, or representation, would 
evince its ease and artlessness by discrepancies in merely 
circumstantial and unimportant particulars. And, this is 
precisely what we find to be the fact in the Sacred 
Writings. They uniformly tell their story with an ease 
and a regardlessness of criticism, which evince a conscious- 
ness of truth and sincerity, which no impostor ever 
successfully affects. 

The difficulty of maintaining consistency, arising from 
the number of writers, the protracted term in which the 
Scriptures were written, and the change of manners and 
customs and opinions, which must have had influence upon 
their successive writers, must have been incalculably 
augmented, on the supposition that they are an imposture, 
by what we may call a change in the mode of the Divine 
administration, which is recorded in the Scriptures. The 



28 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

spirit of the Divine government is, it is true, the same 
throughout the whole course of Revelation ; but, the 
mode is remarkably changed ; and, we venture to assert, 
that it could never have entered into the purpose of an 
impostor to represent such a change, in the mode of the 
Divine administration, as that which was effected when 
the Levitical priesthood, sacrifices, and ordinances were 
superseded by Jesus Christ, in offering himself once for 
all, and by the few, simple, and spiritual institutions of 
the Gospel. An impostor would have shrunk from such a 
change, as impugning the consistency of the Divine 
character, and the stability of the Divine purposes. Or, 
if we could suppose such an adventure on the part of an 
impostor, we cannot suppose that he could preserve 
consistency in his representations, when he should attempt 
its accomplishment. Either he would denounce the old 
order of things, as inherently vicious, or he would contend 
that there was really no difference between the modes of 
administration in the two dispensations of the Divine 
government. Only by truth and fact could any one, 
writing of a change, a striking change of government, 
preserve consistency — avoid impugning the past or com- 
promising the present. Guided by truth, no difficulty is 
felt. The former mode has accomplished its object- — has 
prepared the way for its successor; and, writing from fact, 
he who describes such a change has no difficulty in bring- 
ing in the new dispensation, without dishonoring that 
which is old and vanished away. 

The Scriptures, we have said, profess to be repositories 
of Divine Revelations — -not of isolated, inoperative, 
inconsequential revelations; but of Revelations establishing 
a system of religion and a code of morals, for the human 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 29 

family. It was, therefore, to be expected that their 
influence would not only be felt, but seen also, in those 
to whom they were imparted — that they would form such 
a peculiarity of character, as would distinguish them from, 
and elevate them, in regard to religion and morality, 
above others. Accordingly, we have the evidence of 
history and of existing facts, that the Jewish people were 
formed to a decidedly peculiar character, by the influence 
of the Revelations in the Old Testament Scriptures, and 
that their religious opinions and observances were greatly 
more rational, and their moral code incomparably purer 
than that of other nations of the earth; and that those to 
whom the Gospel has been published, have been similarly 
discriminated and elevated, by the Revelations of the 
New Testament Scriptures. It is not our present purpose 
to insist on the superior reasonableness and dignity of the 
system of religion and morals, revealed in the Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments. It is enough now 
merely to notice the fact that these Revelations did 
operate to form communities of peculiar and discriminated 
characters. This will prevent the possibility of supposing 
the Bible a mere romance, or an imposture, palmed upon 
the world to account for existing facts ; and this will be 
more apparent, when it is considered that, at almost any 
given point of time, the communities, discriminated from 
all other communities, by the influence of these Revela- 
lations, have exhibited a character of dereliction, from 
their principles, which must have prevented an impostor 
from thus accounting for existing phenomena in the 
character of the community he had in view. He would 
have conformed the character of his pseudo revelations to 
the actual character of his community, so as to establish 



30 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

a congruity between them, and would not have presented 
a rule of life, and established a standard of judgment, 
which were perpetual monuments of the aberrations and 
backslidings of the community to which he was drawing 
public attention. As little would an impostor, of talent 
sufficient to be the author of the Scriptures, propose a 
rule of life, and a standard of judgment, which his 
knowledge of human nature would assure him would 
seldom, if ever, be exemplified in the life and justified in 
the character of the community it was his purpose to form 
upon the principles of his imposture. Mohammed, it is 
well known, accommodated his system of religion and 
morals to what he knew of the manners and passions of 
mankind : so as to have a reasonable prospect that those 
whom he designed to form into a community, on the 
principles of the Koran, would readily adopt the course 
and take the character he intended for them. The same 
policy of accommodation has distinguished the impostures 
of the Roman Catholic Church, in every" nation and 
among all the various descriptions of people upon whom 
they have labored to fasten their impositions. This was 
most strikingly the case, in what may be called the 
original apostasy of that Church. There is, in the whole 
of this apostasy, a manifest and labored attempt to 
incorporate as many of the institutions and ceremonies 
of the Jewish and Pagan Temples into their system as 
could, by any possibility, be made to harmonize with their 
pretensions to Christianity. To this it was owing that 
the simplicity and humility of the Gospel ministry was 
made to give place to a domineering hierarchy, of many 
official grades. This introduced the sacrifices, the images, 
the lustrations, the festivals, which burden, while they 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 31 

fascinate the deluded votaries of that corrupt system; 
and, hence, especially, proceeded their purgatory, their 
masses for the dead, and their indulgences for the living. 
Indeed, we may always expect an impostor, who is not 
insane, so far to enlist the prejudices and predilections of 
the persons whom he would get under his influence, as to 
make their accession probable, on principles of human 
calculation ; and, hence, his rules of life will not, upon 
the whole, be revolting to those to whom they are pre- 
scribed, nor his standard of judgment be so strict that it 
cannot be conveniently met by them. The Scriptures, 
on the contrary, offended against all the prejudices, 
outraged the dearest interests and thwarted the strongest 
inclinations of those to whom they were originally 
addressed ; and, in all ages, and among all people, they 
ever have exacted and ever will exact, of those who 
come under their influence, as an initiatory and perpetual 
service, self-denial and cross-bearing — the mortification, 
nay, the crucifixion of their native propensities, and the 
renunciation of the world. Does this exaction look like 
the doing of an impostor, who had talent enough to write 
the sacred volume ? Would not any man, who should 
devise such a scheme for reducing the world to the 
obedience of his system, be considered a madman ? On 
the supposition that the Bible is a Revelation of truth, 
there is nothing unwise in the exactions here noted. 
They are made for sufficient reasons and on proper 
authority ; and they rely for their efficacy on their truth, 
and on the influence of their Almighty Author. 

3. The Revelations, recorded in the Scriptures of the 
Old and New Testaments, were authenticated by miracles, 
i. e., by the performance of operations, not only without 



32 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

the ordinaiy range of human experience, but beyond and 
against the known laws of nature. We shall first make 
a few observations, applicable to the miracles of the Bible 
in general, and then notice, particularly, a few of those 
which were performed in confirmation of the Revelations 
reposited in each of the Testaments. 

(1.) A majority of the miracles of the Bible, were 
suggested by the occasions on which they were performed. 
Those performed by Moses, in the beginning of his min- 
istry, before the children of Israel, and those performed 
before Pharaoh, were exceptions to this rule; and for the 
obvious and sufficient reason, that each of these miracles 
was designed as well to produce a special effect as to 
establish a general truth. But, we repeat, a majority of 
the Bible miracles were wrought without pre-advertise- 
ment. This would prevent preparation, on the part of 
the operator of the miracle, to deceive the spectator ; and 
it would allow no opportunity to the imagination of the 
spectator to form itself to an agreement with the purpose 
of the operator. Designed, and even unintentional, 
collusion, between the performers and the witnesses of 
these miracles, would be impracticable. As, for instance, 
the children of Israel came to the Red Sea, pursued by 
the Egyptians, and shut in by a high mountain on either 
hand ; and seeing no way of escape, they cried out unto 
the Lord. In this emergency, Moses bids them " stand 
still, and see the salvation of the Lord." It does not 
appear that even Moses was then informed by what means 
God would deliver His people; but, he was assured that 
He would do it, and, this was enough to preserve his 
tranquillity and to engage his obedience. When, there- 
fore God commanded the Israelites to move forward, 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 33 

though it was directly towards the Red Sea, and directed 
him to lift up his rod, the staff of his prophetic office, 
assuring him that the sea should be divided, Moses stag- 
gered not, through unbelief, but, elevating the wonder- 
working rod, he led the people forward; when, lo! the 
waters of the sea were divided, and a way was opened for 
the ransomed of the Lord to pass, dry-shod, through the 
mighty deep. Nor did the miracle terminate here ; for, 
the Egyptians, in close pursuit of the Israelites, followed 
them on their miraculous route ; in which, as soon as the 
Israelites had ascended to high ground, they were over- 
whelmed by the rushing waters, which, released from their 
supernatural restraint, returned, under the law of their 
nature, to a uniform level. There was, in relation to this 
astonishing miracle, no notification, no predisposing expec- 
tation, no collusion, between Moses and the millions of 
Israelites who were witnesses of its performance. Neither 
party knew that it was to be performed. Moses was 
assured that, in the way of obedience, they should find 
deliverance. They obeyed; and their deliverance was 
accomplished by means of this miracle. What possibility, 
we ask, was there that this miracle should have been a 
trick, or an imposition 1 Either the history of its perform- 
ance is false, or it must have been a genuine work of 
God — a stupendous miracle. 

(2.) Almost all the miracles of the Bible were publicly 
performed. By this we do not mean merely that witnesses 
were present at their performance, but that they were 
wrought before friends and foes indiscriminately, without 
any previous care to secure the presence of such as were 
predisposed to give favorable testimony in regard to them. 
This was the case with the miraculous bringing down of 

3 



34 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

fire from heaven by Elijah. There was the king of 
Israel, who had sworn to slay the prophet, and had sought 
him, for the purpose of putting him to death, throughout 
his own kingdom, and those of the sovereigns who were 
at peace with him. There, too, were the four hundred 
and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets 
of the groves, who were naturally inimical to a prophet 
of Jehovah. There, also, were the courtiers of the im- 
pious Ahab and the detestable Jezabel ; and who does not 
know the proverbial suppleness and destitution of principle 
that have ever distinguished this odious class of men? 
There, moreover, were the apostate Israelites, who had 
forsaken the God of their fathers, to serve idols. The 
prophet believed and felt himself to be alone in this vast 
assemblage; and, yet, in these circumstances it is that 
he comes forward to attest, by a miracle, open to the 
scrutiny of the multitude of prejudiced and unfriendly 
spectators, the divinity of his mission. What but madness 
could have occasioned such an attempt, in such circum- 
stances, unless the prophet was conscious that he could 
succeed in performing a real miracle? The miracles of 
the blessed Saviour were generally performed in the same 
public manner ; for, though nothing could be further from 
ostentation than His ministry, in all its parts, yet, from 
the observation of His miraculous operations was excluded 
neither the spiritually proud Pharisee, who imagined the 
mercy of Heaven restrained to his sect, nor the skeptical 
Sadducee, who would fain have rejected all that could not 
be accounted for, from the operation of physical laws. 
Priests, Scribes and Lawyers, with all their acumen, and 
with all their malice, had full opportunity to examine, with 
all the rigor they chose to employ, the miracles performed 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 35 

by One, whom it was their most eager desire to find in the 
wrong. And, had there been imposture in the case, who 
can doubt that these keen-sighted and interested inves- 
tigators of His wonderful works would have detected and 
exposed it? But have they done so ? True, they ascribed 
the works, which He performed in their sight, to the 
agency of Satan ; but, who, that considers the nature and 
tendency of these works, can admit this solution of the 
question once proposed to Him, "By what authority doest 
thou these things?" Are His miracles of a kind, suppos- 
ing them within the competency of Satanic agency, which 
we might expect to be performed by the malignant author 
of evil ? Or, are the doctrines attested by these miracles, 
such as might be expected to proceed from the father of 
lies and of every abomination ? This mode of accounting 
for the beneficent miracles of the benevolent Saviour, 
proves that His enemies could not account for them on 
the supposition of trick or imposture ; and, it also proves 
the intense malignity with which they regarded Him and 
His ministry. He, himself, tells His enemies that His 
ministry had been most public, and challenges the arraign- 
ment of aught in that public ministry that merited censure. 
How gladly would they have accepted His challenge, had 
they not known that His ministry could not be success- 
fully impugned ! 

(3.) The miracles of the Bible were almost universally 
of a benevolent character, unless when they were wrought 
with the express purpose of punishing crime. Of this 
latter description were the Flood, the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the burning 
of Korah and his company, the swallowing up alive, in 
the bowels of the earth, of Dathan and Abiram, and a 



36 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

few others of like character. In general, the Bible- 
miracles were wrought to deliver the oppressed from the 
iron yoke of bondage — to give food to those who were 
hungry, or water to those who were athirst — to restore 
health to the sick, activity to the disabled, sight to the 
blind, sanity of mind to the lunatic, or life to the dead — 
asserting, at the same time, that they attested the ministry 
of God's servants, and the justice and, especially, the 
benevolence of Him, whose arm was made bare in their 
performance. Few, very few mere signs were given by 
the Most High, in attestation of His commission to His 
ministers. We recollect only those of the rod turned 
into a serpent, and restored to its proper state, — and the 
hand of Moses, rendered leprous, on being thrust into his 
bosom, and being restored to health, on that act being- 
repeated by him. 

(4.) The miracles of the Bible were exceedingly various 
in their character — forbidding the supposition that they 
consisted of either fortunate accidents, or a system of 
legerdemain, taught by one generation of mountebanks to 
another. Scarcely any law of nature exists, with which 
we are familiar, but was overruled, at one time or another, 
in the performance of the miracles recorded in the Bible. 
Gravitation, a fundamental law of matter, gave up its 
dominion, at the bidding of Him, who imposed that lav/ 
in the constitution of the world of matter. Iron was 
made to swim, and water stood in perpendicular erectness, 
like walls of marble. Fire, kindled to its utmost intensity, 
consumed not the combustible materials which were cast 
into it to be destroyed. The hungry lion lay harmless at 
the feet of the prophet, whose fear of and trust in God 
enabled him to disregard the menaces of an iniquitous 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 37 

legislation. Five loaves and two small fishes were an 
ample repast for more than five thousand persons, who 
had been several hours without food. The rock, in the 
arid desert, smitten, at the command of God, with a rod, 
became a fountain of waters, sufficient to supply the 
wants of three millions of human beings, besides their 
flocks and herds. Retarded in her movements, at the 
command of Joshua, the earth employed thirty-six hours, 
in performing her diurnal revolution, instead of the cus- 
tomary twenty-four. The eyes, which never saw light, 
were opened, by an application of clay made with spittle, 
and washed off at the pool of Siloam. The omnipotent 
" Ephphatha ! " entered the ear which sound had never 
before penetrated, and the deaf, thenceforth, heard without 
obstruction. Loathsome and inveterate leprosy is healed 
by the simple declaration and mandate, " I will — be thou 
clean." The maiden, of twelve years of age, the young 
man, only son of his widowed mother, and Lazarus, the 
beloved of Jesus, who had been four days dead, hear, in 
the torpor of death, the call of Him who is the Prince 
of Life, and come back, " from that bourne, whence no 
traveler," not thus licensed, "returns" to the scenes of 
earth. Thus and even much more various were the 
miracles, by which the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments were authenticated as a Revelation from God. 

4. We shall now more particularly consider a few of 
the miracles, recorded in both the Old and New Testa- 
ments; and, 

(1.) The miracle of the Israelitish nation being fed 
with manna for forty years, will ask our attention in the 
first instance. Entered upon the uncultivated and sterile 
desert, that lay between Egypt and Palestine, and without 



38 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

any magazines of provisions for their subsistence, in their 
wearisome journeyings, the people beheld only a gloomy 
prospect of famine before them; and, assembling, en masse, 
gave vent to their despair, and their indignation against 
Moses and Aaron, who had led them into such circum- 
stances of destitution and danger. "Would to God," 
they say, in the bitterness of their anguish and apprehen- 
sions, — "Would to God that we had died by the hand of 
the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the 
flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full ; for ye 
have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this 
whole assembly with hunger." And, these murmurings 
and regrets were, to all human seeming, well-founded. 
What, if human resources alone were to be calculated on, 
but absolute famine could be expected ? Whence were 
Moses and Aaron to obtain bread, to feed such a multi- 
tude, for weeks and months, at least, and that, too, in a 
fruitless wilderness? No wonder, then, that the multitude 
murmured against Moses and Aaron - — no wonder that 
they regretted even the house of bondage, in which they 
had fed to the full— no wonder, unless, indeed, they 
should have recurred to their recent extrication from 
danger, by the miraculous passage which had been opened, 
by Jehovah, for them, through the Red Sea ; and, on this 
interference in their behalf, they had founded a firm faith 
that He who had shown Himself mighty upon the waters, 
for their salvation, could and would open sources of supply- 
to them in time of need. But they did not thus recur 
to the intervention of Jehovah in this matter, nor did 
they confide their future destiny to His hand ; and, hence, 
their regret, their despair, their murmuring ! God heard 
their murmuring, pitied their affliction, bore with their 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 39 

unbelief, and manifested Himself for their deliverance 
from impending ruin by famine. Through his servant, 
Moses, He announced, to the despairing multitude, that 
He would "rain bread from heaven" for them. The 
fulfillment of this promise is recorded in these simple 
words : " When the dew that lay was gone up, behold, 
upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round 
thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And 
when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to 
another, It is manna : for they wist not what it was. 
And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the 
Lord hath given you to eat." Our translation is mani- 
festly awkward, when it represents the children of Israel 
as saying of the new-found deposit left by the dew, * It 
is manna • for they knew not what it was." The word 
manna, the margin tells us, signifies, " What is it ? " 
Hence, the rendering should have been, " The children 
of Israel said, concerning it, Manna ? (i. e. 9 What is it ?) 
for they wist not what it was." This manna continued, 
for forty years, to be daily supplied ; except that, on the 
day before the Sabbath, every week, a supply for two 
days was afforded, and that none was to be found on the 
Sabbath. 

There are several circumstances which place the miracu- 
lous character of this supply of food beyond all reasonable 
question : 1. No such residuum of dew was ever before 
found on the face of the ground, either in the Sinai tic 
wilderness or elsewhere — at least all history is silent in 
regard to any thing of the kind. It has been equally 
unknown since the entrance of the Israelites upon the 
possession of their promised heritage. 2. It fell, every 
day, in sufficient quantity only for the supply of the 



40 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

people for that one day; except that on one day in every 
week, there fell a supply for two days; and that on another 
day, in every week, there fell none at all — these exceptions, 
to the rule of daily supply, being intended to secure the 
sanctity of the holy Sabbath. 3. An attempt to lay up a 
part of one day's supply for the necessities of another day, 
was rendered abortive, by the manna becoming corrupt; 
and yet, when, by command of Heaven, a pot was filled with 
it, to be kept as a memorial of the food with which God 
sustained His people, it suffered no deterioration for years, 
or even centuries; as neither did that which, weekly, was 
kept two days, for the food of the Sabbath. 4. As soon 
as the necessity of this kind of provision ceased, in conse- 
quence of the people of Israel corning to a cultivated 
land, the manna ceased forever. Now, connect all these 
circumstances with the fact that this kind of supply was 
promised beforehand, as a miraculous provision, and who 
can doubt its miraculous character ? None, surely, without 
impugning its history, can call in question the genuineness 
of this miracle. 

But, how can its history be impugned? Could six 
hundred thousand men, of twenty years old and upwards, 
and the millions belonging to them, be imposed upon by 
the assurance that they had been thus fed, if such had 
not been the fact ? The record of the fact was in their 
hands. Could they have permitted that record to remain 
in their archives, and to descend to their posterity, had it 
been false? There, too, was the pot of manna, a standing 
memorial, for centuries, of the miracle by which the hosts 
of Israel had been fed, and a monumental confirmation of 
the truth of the record ! The writings of Moses came 
immediately into the possession of the people who were 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 41 

said, in them, to be the beneficiaries of this miracle. 
Could they have received those writings with respect, not 
to say with reverence, had they contained this record, of 
what they all must have known to be false, if such a 
miraculous supply of food had not been ministered to 
them? Or, allowing that this record was not in the 
writings of Moses, when could it have been interpolated ? 
The Jewish Scriptures were in their own language, — were 
much read, publicly as well as privately, and much vene- 
rated. When, then, could so material a circumstance have 
been foisted into those Scriptures ? Not, surely, while the 
events of the exodus were fresh in the recollections and 
traditions of those times! nor, certainly, after the history 
and traditions of those times had acquired the sacredness 
and venerableness of age, and of long-established deference ! 
And, what a striking miracle is this! About three 
millions of people, daily, for nearly forty years, receiving 
an abundant supply of wholesome food, without dependence 
on any of the ordinary sources of such supply ! No seed 
germinated, no harvest was gathered to supply the multi- 
tude with bread ! Well might the astonished Israelites 
exclaim, "Manna!" when seeing, for the first time, the 
novel material of that food, by which they were, hence- 
forth while in the wilderness, to be sustained and nourished ! 
Well might Moses, in after days, as well as other Jewish 
saints, often recur to the bread of heaven, upon which they 
were constantly subsisted for forty years, as a standing evi- 
dence that God had chosen the people of Israel for his own 
inheritance; and that Moses, himself, was the appointed 
minister of the Divine will among them, accredited by 
this, as by other striking manifestations of the Divine 
interposition in their behalf, through his instrumentality. 



42 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

(2.) The second miracle, to which our attention will be 
called, is recorded in the fifth chapter of 2 Kings. The 
commander-in-chief of the Syrian armies, whose name was 
Naaman, was afflicted with that loathsome and inveterate 
disease — leprosy. In his family there was a captive girl, 
of the Israelitish nation, who was acquainted with the 
reputation of Elisha, the prophet, for performing miracles. 
Perhaps she had heard of the miracle he performed at 
Jericho, in sweetening and rendering salutary the bitter 
and deleterious fountain, which supplied that city with 
water, by casting into it a little salt. Perhaps she had 
heard of the poisonous pottage, which he had rendered 
innoxious by throwing into it some meal. Perhaps she 
had heard of his restoring the son of his Shunammite bene- 
factress to life, after he had been many hours dead. Be 
all this as it may, she certainly had knowledge of his 
being endued with miraculous powers; for, with true 
feminine kindness and warmth of heart, the youthful slave 
expressed an earnest wish that her master were with the 
prophet, that was in Samaria ; who, she asserted, " would 
recover him of his leprosy." This wish, uttered to her 
mistress, by the Samaritan captive, was reported to the 
great man, and, finally, reached the ears of the king him- 
self, who, doubtless, had often heard enough of the 
wondrous works performed by the prophets of Israel to 
make him regard the words of the little captive as 
worthy of attention. The estimation in which he held his 
general, Naaman, disposed him to resort to any means 
that promised his recovery from the terrible affliction 
under which he was suffering. He, therefore, resolved to 
place his officer in the circumstances in which the Israeli- 
tish slave had asserted he would be restored to health. 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 43 

With this view, he sent Naanian to the king of Israel, 
requesting that monarch to effect his recovery from the 
leprosy. The king of Israel, knowing that the cure of 
leprosy was hopeless, save by Divine agency, supposed the 
object of the Syrian king, in making such a demand, 
must be the breeding of a quarrel between the two nations, 
and was about to dismiss the afflicted generalissimo, not 
only uncured, but as a peace-breaker. But, Elisha, being 
informed of the whole matter, probably by Divine inspira- 
tion, sent to the king of Israel, desiring that Naaman 
might come to him. " He shall know," says Elisha, " that 
there is a prophet in Israel." Accordingly, Naaman was 
directed to Elisha ; and, with a splendid equipage, came 
and stood at the door of the house in which the prophet 
was residing. 

The preconceptions of Naaman were natural enough. 
He expected the prophet, with imposing ceremonies 
and manipulations, to invoke the interposition of his 
God, in the cure to be effected. But, the prophet, that 
he might not be supposed to have any personal part in 
the cure — that that cure might appear to be, as it really 
was, wholly of God, refused to appear, and directed a 
simple ablution, seven times in the waters of the Jordan. 
Naaman, as the event proved, had relied much upon some 
efficiency resident in the prophet, personally considered ; 
and he, therefore, looked upon the means prescribed for 
his cure as not only inadequate, but affronting in their 
character, and was about to go away indignant, without 
following the prophet's directions. But, his servants, 
reasoning with him on the imprudence of his course, 
prevailed on him, at length, to yield obedience to the 
prophet's requirements; and, dipping himself in the 



44 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

Jordan seven times, he was made perfectly whole of his 
distressing malady. 

In this whole affair, there is not the slightest ground 
to suppose that there was collusion between the parties — 
sleight-of-hand, on the part of the prophet, or illusion on 
the part of the recovered leper. The parties had no 
interview, and could have had no means of concerting an 
imposition upon the public, in regard to the cure. Naa- 
man did not imagine himself into a cure by the means 
prescribed by the prophet; for, he considered those means 
an indignity to himself, and wholly inadequate to his 
cure. The disease was real, was of considerable duration, 
was confirmed, therefore, into a habit — a chronic affection. 
The cure also was real. What, then, but a miracle, could 
have effected the cure ? Was it effected by some medici- 
nal virtue resident in the waters of the Jordan ? Why, 
then, were not more of the lepers in that country healed 
by a similar application of them ? Why, especially, was 
not Gehazi,the prophet's servant, who knew, it is presumed, 
the whole process of Naaman's cure, recovered from his 
leprosy, by dipping himself seven times in the Jordan ? 
The virtue was not in the waters of the Jordan — those 
of Abana and Pharpar would, as Naaman supposed, have 
been equally efficacious. It was God who gave the word 
of healing to the prophet ; and, in obedience to that word, 
the leper found health in the waters of the Jordan; as the 
blind man found sight, by washing off the clay with which 
his eyes had been anointed, in the pool of Siloam. The 
virtue came by the appointment of God, who afflicts and 
heals as He pleases. 

Nor can we, without violent improbability, suppose the 
history of this miracle a fabrication. It is found among 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 45 

the political annals of one nation, and relates to the cure 
of a high officer and favorite with the monarch of another 
nation. These nations, moreover, were of different reli- 
gions, and very often engaged in the most furious hostility 
against each other. They were in near neighborhood; 
and, therefore, the remarkable things at the court of one of 
these nations, would, in all likelihood, be known at the court 
of the other, especially if such remarkable event could be 
regarded as, in any manner, affecting the rival claims of 
those nations to political or religious superiority. The 
annals, in which this account is found, were probably 
made public during the existence of these rival nations, 
and in sufficient proximity to the time at which this 
miracle was said to have been wrought, to allow of the 
falsehood being seen and exposed by the Syrians, if their 
chief military commander had not been recovered from a 
leprosy by a prophet of Israel, who professed a religion 
not only different from theirs, but hostile to, and severely 
denunciatory of it. Is it reasonable, then, that the story 
would have been invented, and especially, that it would 
have been gravely put among the memorabilia of the 
kingdom ? Would not the hazard of detection, exposure 
and infamy have been too great to allow of such an 
invention ? Would not the Syrian nation, and the court 
especially, have exulted in the opportunity, afforded by 
such an attempt at imposition, of exposing to scorn and 
detestation the nation and religion which they feared and 
hated ? And, would they not have thus exposed them ? 
And, expecting such exposure, would any votary of Israel 
and her religion and prophets, have incurred it, by 
attempting an imposition like that we are now supposing ? 
The supposition is violently absurd. 



46 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

(3.) We shall notice but one more of the miracles 
recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures ; and that will 
be found narrated in the third chapter of the prophecy of 
Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar was one of the greatest con- 
querors that ever desolated the face of the earth. He had 
spread his dominions over nearly the whole of Asia, 
excepting China and Japan. One part of his policy was 
to transfer the inhabitants of one country to another 
country; and, by so doing, to break up local attachments, 
obliterate peculiarities of character and bring about a 
homogeneity among the various people he had subdued ; 
so as to make of them one great nation, uniform in 
manners and harmonious in sentiment. Among other 
discordancies which he aimed at reconciling, was that in 
regard to Religion. With this view, he had caused to be 
made an image of the God, whose worship he would have 
to be universally celebrated. No expense or skill was 
spared, in rendering this image worthy of the distinction 
intended for it ; and the ceremonies, ordained for its 
instalment, were of answerable magnificence. All the 
sweetness of melody, all the force of harmony were put in 
requisition, to produce the most imposing effect. To 
bring about the desired uniformity, there was added the 
terrible denunciation, that any one who should be delin- 
quent, on this great occasion, a should be cast, alive, into 
the burning, fiery furnace." Thus allured, and thus 
menaced, the peoples, nations, languages and tongues, 
subject to this mighty emperor, were nearly unanimous, 
in merging all religious distinctions in the national worship 
now established. We say, nearly unanimous; for, there 
were some who, with Abdiel-firmness, refused compliance 
with the impious requirement of Nebuchadnezzar. Shad- 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 47 

rach, Meshach, and Abednego, three young men, who 
were in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and high in his 
favor and in office in the State, resolved that they would 
not comply with a requirement which their consciences 
disallowed. Royal favor, and honorable and lucrative 
appointments, on the one hand, and the most terrible 
punishment on the other, availed nothing " to change 
their constant minds'' in this matter. And, though 
personally remonstrated with and solicited by the king 
himself, they firmly, though respectfully, refused to fall 
down and worship the image that he had set up, and 
before which an obsequious world lay in prostrate adora- 
tion. Defeated in his favorite scheme of uniformity, 
thwarted in the counsels of his wisdom, which Royalty is 
so apt to consider infallible — braved by his own servants, 
and disobliged by his favorites, what wonder that this 
mighty sovereign was filled with rage and fury I What 
wonder that his countenance, heretofore beaming upon 
them with favor, was changed to an expression of hatred 
and wrath against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! 
When could Royalty brook such disobedience? When 
could infallible dictation regard dissent with patience, or 
favoritism see itself abandoned and opposed, by the 
objects of its election, without the most violent rage ? 
Nebuchadnezzar was not, at any rate, to be thus thwarted 
with impunity. His rage burned furiously against his 
protesting servants ; and he determined to make them 
fearful examples of his vengeance. He commanded, 
therefore, that the furnace, into which they were to be 
cast, should be heated to seven-fold fierceness; and, 
causing them to be bound hand and foot, he ordered them 
to be cast, clad in all their apparel, into the midst of the 



48 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

devouring fire. Well might the king, who knew no 
power greater than his own, triumphantly and tauntingly 
ask these devoted men, " Who shall deliver you out of 
my hands? " 

Great was the faith of these noble young men — great, 
too, was their meekness and their humility, as well as their 
devoted piety. "We are not careful to answer thee," they 
say, in reply to the king, " We are not careful to answer 
thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, 
is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and 
He will deliver us out of thy hand, king. But, if not, 
be it known unto thee, king, we will not serve thy gods, 
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." 
Happy these men ! who could commit themselves, with 
unblenching confidence, into the hands of an Almighty 
Protector, for life or death — assured of well-being in either 
event alike. And, their faith was triumphant. The fire, 
into which they were cast, though of such intense heat as 
to slay those who approached near enough to the mouth 
of the furnace to cast them in, was restrained from doing 
them any harm. Upon their bonds alone it took effect. 
Not only were their persons unharmed, but their very 
clothes remained unsinged. " The smell of fire did not 
pass upon them." Such is the simple, though triumphant 
representation of the matter by the sacred writer. The 
astonished king beheld those whom he had devoted as 
victims to his idolatrous bigotry, and had cast into the 
burning fiery furnace, bound hand and foot, walking, 
unbound, in the midst of the fire, accompanied by a 
glorious personage, whom he, probably, was correct in 
supposing to be "the Son of God." Calling these men 
out of the burning flame, the king adored their God ; 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 49 

who had sent His angel to deliver those, His servants, 

from their danger, and who alone, of all the gods, could 

thus deliver those who trusted in Him. And the king, 

further, made a decree, that severe punishment should be 

inflicted on any who, in his dominions, should thenceforth 

speak anything amiss of the God of Shadraeh, Meshach 

and Abednego. 

Here, then, is a miracle, wrought in midst of a capital 

of a mighty empire, in derogation of its religion, and 

in flagrant opposition to the most favorite scheme of its 

absolute ruler. Could there be fraud or imposture in such a 

miracle, performed in such circumstances ? Or, can the 

account of it be a fabrication ? A decree of the Chaldean 

empire, extending then over all the known nations of 

Asia, is declared to have been based upon this miracle. 

Either the decree did, or did not exist — if it did exist, 

how, but on the supposition that the miracle was actually 

performed, can its existence be accounted for? If it did 

not exist, who, but a madman, would have included, in 

his account of a factitious miracle, a circumstance which 

might so easily be disproved as the fact of this decree? 

Surely, it requires no little credulity to believe that a 

writer, of so much common sense, not to say of such 

superior ability, as he who wrote the book of Daniel, 

could have placed himself so completely at the mercy 

of the slightest inquiry ! Who, as a similar case, would 

venture to publish to the world that the disciples of 

Luther, in the days of Charles the Fifth, had, by that 

Emperor, been cast into the fire, before an immense 

multitude, in the city of Ratisbon, because they would 

not adore an image of the Virgin Mary; and, that, upon 

their escaping from the flames unscorched, Charles had 
4 



50 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

recognized the hand of God, in their deliverance, and 
had issued a decree that, throughout his dominions, none 
should impugn the Protestant faith with impunity? He 
who should venture on such a publication, would run the 
risk of being consigned to bedlam. Yet, such is the 
madness of which the very able writer of the book of 
Daniel must stand charged, if the account he has given, 
of the deliverance of the three Hebrews from the burning, 
fiery furnace, be not a true account, and if the decree of 
Nebuchadnezzar, in regard to it, were not issued. 

By the first of these miracles God made himself known 
to the Israelitish nation, as the Supreme Disposer of 
events ; and confirmed, beyond all question, the prophetic 
character of Moses, as well as furnished an ample supply 
of food to his people, during all their wanderings in the 
wilderness, for nearly forty years : by the second, He 
asserted, to the idolatrous Syrians, and apostate Israelites, 
His prerogative over life and death, over health and 
disease, and authenticated the prophetic character of 
Elisha ; besides that he restored to health a most worthy 
sufferer; and, by the third, He showed, in the face of all 
people, that He is "King of kings," ruling among men, 
and bringing to nought, when He pleases, the counsel of 
princes — that counsel is folly, and might feebleness, 
when they are employed against Him — that those who 
trust in Him, are under sure and invincible protection — 
besides, that He actually did deliver, from a most frightful 
death, three excellent young men, condemned, for their 
steady adherence to principle. In all these cases, the 
occasions, judging on merely human grounds, were worthy 
Divine interposition ; and the moral effect was of sufficient 
importance to warrant the performance of a miracle, if 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 51 

there had been no famine to prevent, no leprosy to heal, 
no pious youths to preserve from a death, as wholly 
undeserved as it was horrible in its character. 

We shall now consider a few of the miracles recorded 
in the New Testament. There is much difficulty in 
making a selection, where the miracles performed are so 
numerous, so benevolent and so striking ; but, we shall 
present the following for consideration. 

(1.) The first which we shall notice, is that of giving 
sight to a man ivho ivas lorn Mind. It is recorded in the 
ninth chapter of the Gospel by St. John. As Jesus was 
passing, from one scene of His ever active beneficence to 
another, He saw a man, of mature age, who had never 
seen the sweet light of heaven. His disciples were 
curious to know why this calamity had befallen him; and 
believing that all physical evil was the result of moral 
evil, and, moreover, that men were punished only for 
their own sins or for those of their parents; and, as it 
would seem, embracing the doctrine of transmigration, 
they asked their Master, whether this blindness had 
befallen the unfortunate man on account of his own sins, 
or those of his parents. Jesus assures them that neither 
for his own sins, nor for the sins of his parents had this 
calamity come upon him, but that occasion might be 
afforded for the manifestation of the works of God; and 
adds, " As long as I am in the world, I am the light of 
the world." Having so said, He spat on the ground ; 
and, making clay with the spittle, applied it to the eyes 
of the blind man, and bade him go to the pool of Siloam 
and wash. The blind man went and did as directed ; and, 
behold ! his eyes were opened, and he saw. This is the 
whole account of this very astonishing operation. The 



52 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

story is told with a simplicity and straight-forwardness 
that give it an air of truth which must strike every 
reader. 

But, besides the intrinsic evidence that this narrative is 
true, found in the simplicity and straight-forwardnes, with 
which the story is told, there are circumstances attending 
the performance of the miracle, which render it next to 
impossible for us to doubt its authenticity. The miracle 
was performed on the Jewish Sabbath ; and, the Scribes 
and Pharisees, predisposed to question aught that was 
calculated to establish the pretensions of the Blessed 
Saviour to the Messiahship, laid hold of this circumstance 
to impugn the miracles of Jesus in general, and this of 
the enlightened blind man in particular. They reasoned 
that, as Jesus did not keep the Sabbath day holy, as they 
contended he did not when performing cures, he could 
not be of God ; and, if not of God, he could not perform 
a real miracle. Hence, they instituted a most rigorous 
investigation of this reputed miracle — not with a view to 
ascertain the truth in regard to it, but, if possible, to prove 
it to have been falsely reported. Their first step, after 
hearing the simple statement of the man who professed to 
have received his sight, was to establish the identity of 
the blind man; so as to ascertain whether he, who 
professed to have received his sight, were really the same, 
or whether he were an impostor. For this purpose, calling 
before them the parents of the man who had been born 
blind, they demanded of them whether that person was 
their son, who, they said, was born blind ? The parents 
unhesitatingly declared that he was their son, and that it 
was matter of knowledge with them that he ivas born 
blind. The next interrogatory of the Scribes and Phari- 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 53 

sees was, by what means their son was brought to see? 
On this point, the parents professed ignorance ; and it may 
be, they did not know, though they had heard and 
believed that Jesus had opened their son 's eyes. Their 
gratitude for this unspeakable mercy to their son, was 
overborne by their fear of excommunication ; for, the 
rulers of the Synagogue had agreed that, if any man 
should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he should be 
excluded the Synagogue. Hence, they disclaimed any 
knowledge of the person by whom their son was made to 
see. Perhaps the parents trusted that the greatness of 
his obligation to Jesus would secure impunity to their son, 
in a confession which they could not make with safety. 
Be this as it may, they referred their interrogators to their 
son, for an answer which they dared not give in sincerity 
themselves. He was, then, again called before the 
inquisitors, who, instead of inquiring of him by what 
means he, who had been born blind, was now able to see, 
exhorted him to give the praise of the benefit conferred 
upon him to God; adding, "We know that this man," 
Jesus, "is a sinner." The poor man, though puzzled 
with their casuistry, could not be induced to deny his 
Benefactor ; and he answered with a sarcasm, not the less 
cutting for the tone of humilhty in which it was uttered, 
" Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not — one thing 
I know, that, whereas I was blind now I see." His 
examiners, wishing, perhaps, to confound him by the reit- 
eration of their questions, again asked him, "What did 
he to thee? How opened he thine eyes?" His answer 
was such as should have confounded and covered them 
with shame, knowing, as they did, that they were prede- 
termined against conviction of the genuineness of the 



54 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

miracle. "I have told you already," says he, "and ye 
did not hear : wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye 
also be his disciples?" Enraged that he, who had but 
just opened his eyes upon the world, should have been 
able to penetrate the dark malignity and prejudice of 
their hearts, the Scribes and Pharisees descended to the 
ignoble office of reviling him whom they could not induce 
to renounce his Benefactor. " Thou," they say, " art his 
disciple ; but, we are Moses's disciples. We know that 
God spake to Moses : as for this fellow we know not 
whence he is." "Why," replied the man, " herein is a 
marvelous thing, that ye know not whence he is, and yet 
he hath opened mine eyes. Now, we know that God 
heareth not sinners; but, if any man be a worshiper of 
God and do his will, him he heareth. Since the world 
began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of 
one that was born blind. If this man were not of God 
he could do nothing." This was reasoning so forcible, so 
conclusive, on their own principles, too, that they did not 
even attempt any other refutation, but that which is 
always the last resort of baffled authority. They cast him 
out, i. e., excommunicated him, after contemptuously 
exclaiming, " Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost 
thou teach us V' To see the full force of the reasoning 
employed by the recovered man, it is necessary to recollect 
that the Pharisees had said, " We know that God spake 
unto Moses." How did they know this unless by means 
of the Divine interpositions, whereby the intercourse of 
Moses with God was attested to others ?. And, were any 
of these interpositions more strongly marked, more mani- 
festly of God, than that which was the subject of the 
present investigation? They rightly concluded that 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 55 

Moses was of God, and that God spake to him, because 
Moses was enabled to perform works which could be per- 
formed only by the employment of Divine energy ; but 
none of the works performed by Moses more clearly 
inferred the presence of Divine energy, than did the 
opening of the eyes of one who was born blind. If, there- 
fore, the works performed by Moses, authenticated his 
mission as from God, it was passing strange that this 
manifestation of the Divine power, in the works of Jesus, 
should have left the Pharisees ignorant whence He was. 
No wonder that, resolved as they were to reject the 
mission of Jesus, the Pharisees should break off the 
investigation, in regard to this miracle, when, in the simple 
reasoning of this unlettered man, they were so completely 
overmastered and confounded. 

Let us further remark, that this miracle was wrought 
in the immediate neighborhood in which the blind man 
had lived, and in which he had been a public beggar. 
He was, therefore, well known : so that there could be no 
mistake in regard either to his identity or his habitual 
blindness. Of the reality of his vision, no question was 
made, either by his neighbors, or by the Pharisees, who 
so rigorously and with such manifest solicitude to disallow 
the miracle, examined the case. Everything in regard to 
this miracle, was matter of public notoriety — nothing, 
concerning it, was done in a corner. How, then, if the 
miracle were not genuine, are we to account for the 
absence of any attempt to discredit it, save the puerile 
argument employed by the Pharisees, that it could not 
be a work of God, because it was performed on the 
Sabbath-day ? Will it be said that other objections were 
probably made, but, that, as no writings of that time, of 



56 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

those unfriendly to the claims of the miracle, now exist, 
those objections are not extant ? But, can we suppose 
that, if such objections had existed, there would be no 
reference to them in this detailed account of the investi- 
gation gone into on the occasion ? Is it at all reasonable, 
nay, is it not utterly absurd to suppose that all trace of 
such objections, had they existed, would have disappeared ? 
The fact that one objection, relied upon, and often urged 
by the enemies of Jesus, is preserved, affords a strong 
presumption that, had there been other objections, they, 
too, would have been noted, and would have been found, 
in some form, in the history of that important case. 

(2.) The second New Testament miracle, which will 
ask our consideration, you will find recorded in the 
eleventh chapter of the Gospel by Si John. There was, 
at Bethany, a family, consisting of Lazarus and his two 
sisters, Martha and Mary, with whom our blessed Saviour 
was in habits of friendly intercourse. Of the character 
of Lazarus we know nothing ; but some intimations are 
afforded us of that of his two sisters. Martha was hospita- 
ble, frank, and of an active, managing character. Mary 
was retiring, modest and remarkable for docility of dispo- 
sition. The Evangelist has informed us that Jesus loved 
this amiable family ; and, we may be assured that He, 
who knew the whole strain of character belonging to each 
of them, and was Himself, the consummation of all excel- 
lence, loved them only because their characters were such 
as rendered them worthy of His affection. There came a 
message to Him, from Martha and Mary, when at a 
considerable distance, informing Him that Lazarus was 
sick. When He received this message, He remarked to 
His disciples, that the sickness of His friend was " not 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 57 

unto death ; but, for the glory of God, that the Son of 
God might be glorified thereby." He could not have 
meant that the sickness of Lazarus should not produce 
his death — the whole scope of the narrative forbids the 
supposition that such was His meaning; unless, indeed, it 
was His insane purpose to contradict Himself without a 
motive. His meaning must have been, and evidently 
was, that death should not be the final remit of the 
sickness of Lazarus. He did not think proper, however, 
as He often did, either to send a health-giving message 
to the sufferer, or to go Himself and raise his friend from 
the bed of sickness, but remained where He was two days, 
after receiving the intelligence of His friend's illness. 
What a trial of their friendship for Jesus, must the sisters 
have endured from this, to them, inexplicable delay ! 
They both, afterwards, avowed their conviction that Jesus 
could and, if He had been present, would have saved 
their brother's life. They sent to Him with that view ; 
but, He came not; and their brother died ! After two 
days delay, Jesus said to His disciples, "Oar friend, 
Lazarus, sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him." 
The disciples thought He spoke literally ; but Jesus told 
them plainly, " Lazarus is dead ; " and added, " I am 
glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, to the intent 
that ye might believe." He went, accompanied by His 
disciples ; and, when He arrived, He found that Lazarus 
had been four days dead. After much interesting con- 
versation with the sisters, and the manifestation of the 
tenderest sympathy in their sorrows, He came to the 
place of Lazarus's sepulture. It was a cave, the mouth 
of which was shut by a stone being placed upon it ; and 
He commanded that the sepulchre should be opened, by 



58 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

removing the stone. Martha, shocked at this order, 
remonstrated that, as her brother had been now four days 
dead, he must be offensive. But, Jesus reminded her that 
He had told her that, "if she would believe, she should 
see the glory of God." The stone was removed ; and, 
Jesus, lifting up His eyes to heaven, said, " Father ! I 
thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that 
Thou hearest me always ; but, because of the people 
which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou 
hast sent me." Here He intimates His purpose to work 
a miracle, by the power of His Father, with the express 
intention to accredit, with the people, His Divine mission. 
Having made this important preparation, for the miracle 
He was about to perform, He cried, with a loud voice, 
that all present might distinctly hear, " Lazarus, come 
forth ! and, immediately, he that had been four days 
dead, came forth," in the presence of all, friends and foes 
alike; for there were foes of Jesus present on this 
occasion; and many of them were convinced, by this 
miracle, that He was the Messiah. Others, however, went 
to the Chief Priests and Pharisees, and related to them the 
whole transaction, it would seem with a malicious intention. 
Whereupon, a Council was assembled, in which, conceding 
the fact that Jesus did perform many miracles, they 
consulted what they should do ; arguing that, i If they 
permitted Him thus to proceed, the people would all 
believe on Him, and that the Romans would come and 
take away their place and nation.' Fools, that they were ! 
not to perceive that He, who could thus perform miracles, 
even to the raising of the dead, could defend them against 
the Romans, or any other foe that could come against 
them. But, their hearts were hardened; and, instead of 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 59 

% 

throwing themselves under His protection, by receiving 
Him as their Messiah, they resolved, at the instance of 
the High Priest, to put Him to death, and, thereby, 
brought upon themselves the very calamity, to avert 
which they adopted this horrible resolution. Thus are 
the counsels of iniquity always foolishness ! 

A man of sufficient note to induce many of the 
citizens of Jerusalem to go, after his death, to condole 
with his bereaved family is sick — dies — is buried, and 
remains four days under the power of death. The family 
are given up to mourning, and the neighbors and friends 
are assembled to sympathize with and comfort them. 
Many, even from Jerusalem, have come to Bethany with 
this benevolent purpose. Hope, save of his resurrection, 
when all the just shall rise, sheds not one ray upon the 
gloom of their minds, who weep over the grave of the 
departed Lazarus. To this scene of death and mourning, 
comes, at length, the Prince of life and peace. First one, 
and then the other sister of the departed meets the 
Saviour, and with regretful, if not with reproachful 
greeting, assure Him of their faith that, if, as by their 
message they meant that He should, He had been present, 
their brother would not have died. He prepares them, 
by intimations only, however, for His purpose to supply 
this lack of service towards them; and, when they are 
thus prepared, in the presence of many persons, He calls 
back the dead to life. What opportunity was there for 
imposition in this matter ? In the absence of Jesus, in 
a distant part of the country, Lazarus falls sick and dies. 
His sickness and death were matters of public notoriety. 
The grief of the family, and the sympathy of those who 
came to comfort them, are evidences of the certainty of 



60 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

His death. Jesus goes near the tomb, in a large company — 
He does not enter the tomb — He does not even look into 
it — but, ordering it to be opened, and announcing His 
purpose to work a miracle, in order that the people might 
believe that the Father had sent Him, He calls, with a loud 
voice, " Lazarus, come forth ! " Every circumstance, in 
the whole affair, forbids the supposition of collusion or 
imposture. No wonder that many, who witnessed this 
miracle, believed on Him. The wonder is, that any man 
could be present, without believing on Him. No wonder 
that the Chief Priests and Pharisees were compelled to 
admit that He did work miracles! ■ — at least, that this was 
a miracle of indisputable character. The wonder is, that, 
after making the concession, they should reject Him as the 
Messiah, and resolve upon His death. 

(3.) The third, and last of the miracles recorded in the 
New Testament, to which we shall invite your considera- 
tion, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ himself from the 
dead. The blessed Jesus had, on several occasions, fore- 
warned His disciples, and notified others, that He should 
die a violent death, through the malice of His country- 
men: but, He comforted His disciples with the assurances 
that this could take place only with His own permission , 
and, that, after He was put to death, He should, on the 
third day, rise from the dead. a No man," saith He, 
" taketh away my life : I have power to lay it down, and 
I have power to take it again." And, He further assures 
them that, in both laying down His life, and, in taking it 
up again, He will act in conformity to the Divine will. 
" This commandment," to lay down His life, and to take 
it up again, " have I received of my Father." He had 
not only comforted His disciples, with the assurance, that 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 61 

He should rise from the dead on the third day, from that 
on which He should be put to death, but had publicly 
predicted the same event, with sufficient clearness to be 
distinctly understood by those most inimical to Him. 
" We remember," say His murderers to Pilate," " that 
that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, after three days 
I will rise again." When, therefore, He had been crucified, 
and was, on careful examination, found to be dead, and 
was committed to the tomb — a new one, hewn in the 
living rock, and shut in, by a great stone being rolled 
to the door of the tomb — His enemies having knowledge 
of the prediction, of His resurrection on the third day, 
and having received authority from the Governor, sealed 
the stone, and placed a guard around it; lest, as they 
said, "His disciples should come, by night, and steal 
away His body, and report that His predicted resurrection 
had' taken place : " thus confirming the error which He 
had promulgated, of His being the long-promised Messiah. 
Overwhelmed with grief, by the death of their beloved 
Master, which, though He Himself had often warned them 
it would come, they had not expected, and alarmed for their 
own fate, the disciples forgot the promise of His resurrec- 
tion, and abandoned themselves to grief and despair. Those 
most devoted to Him, employed themselves in making pre- 
parations to come, on the third day, and give Him a more 
decent burial than, on the eve of the Sabbath, when He 
was taken from the cross, they were able to bestow upon 
Him. During this interval, the darkness of death settled 
down on the tomb of the Saviour, and on the prospect 
of the world's redemption. His enemies triumphed, and 
those who loved Him, abandoned themselves to unmingled 
grief and despondency. 



62 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

At length, the morning of the third day from the 
crucifixion dawned upon the silent resting place of the 
Saviour. A brighter light, than that of the dawn, centred 
upon the hallowed tomb. It revealed the form of an 
angel of light, severe in the beauty of holiness, to guards 
who watched around the sepulchre of Jesus. Hardened, 
by their familiarity with scenes of danger, as their pro- 
fession must have rendered them, these soldiers of Rome 
quailed, trembled, fell to the ground and became as dead 
men in the presence of the angel. An earthquake had 
accompanied his coming, and, doubtless, had contributed 
to increase the appalling effect of his presence upon their 
iron nerves. They could have speared away the disciples 
had they come to take away the body of their Master, but, 
how should they contend with a celestial being, coming in 
an earthquake, and darting the fierceness of lightning, in 
the glance with which he regarded them? They saw him 
roll away the sealed stone which they were placed there to 
preserve inviolate ! — they saw him seat himself, in serene, 
though terrible majesty, upon that stone! — but, it was not 
in them to oppose or to question him. Meantime, asserting 
His own underived and independent power over life and 
death, the Son of God came forth from the tomb, resusci- 
tated by His own energy, living in His own right. The 
magnificence and moral interest of this stupendous event 
urge themselves upon our regard, with almost resistless 
attraction ; but, we must not indulge now in reflections 
on a theme so heart-thrilling. Our business is one of a 
much soberer description. It is for us to consider this 
stupendous event in the simple light of a miracle, wrought 
in attestation of the pretensions of the Gospel to be a 
Revelation from God, and of Jesus Christ to be the Messiah. 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 63 

The authenticity of this miracle stands on high, we 
might safely assert, on unassailable ground. The cruci- 
fixion and death of Jesus were so public, so notorious, that 
no doubt could exist with respect to their reality. Friends 
and foes, amidst the crowds assembled to celebrate the 
Jewish passover, were witnesses of these. Disciples and 
Priests, Pharisees and Sadducees, Roman soldiers and 
Roman officers beheld His crucifixion and witnessed His 
death. His burial was with the consent of Pilate, with 
the knowledge of His enemies, and under the immediate 
superintendence of a member of the Sanhedrim. The 
tomb, in which He was buried, was excavated in the living 
rock, and was closed, at the only entrance, by a great 
stone being rolled against it. This stone was sealed with 
the signet of authority; and, to "make assurance," of 
its inviolability, " doubly sure," till after the period at 
which Jesus had predicted that He would rise from the dead, 
a guard was placed around the sepulchre. On the morning 
of the third day the body of Jesus was missing. The 
disciples soon publicly reported that His prediction was 
fulfilled — that He was risen from the dead. The Chief 
Priests and Pharisees, with His other enemies, must 
account for the absence of His body. It was under their 
seal, and in custody of their guards. If He be not risen 
from the dead, as His disciples say He is, where is His body? 
They felt that, if they would not serve the interests of 
Christ's cause, they must answer this question ; and they 
did attempt to do it. They reported that the guards had 
said, " The disciples came by night, while we slept, and 
stole Him away." To say nothing of the absurdity of the 
guards testifying to what was done while they themselves 
were asleep, can anything be more absurd than the sup- 



64 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

position that the disciples, who, while their Master was 
living and regarded by them as the Redeemer of Israel, 
and the Messiah, were so much affrighted as to forsake 
Him, would, to get possession of His dead bod}', encounter 
the risk of a conflict with the Roman guard ? Could 
they hope to find that guard asleep ? Or, if that were 
probable, could they hope to remove a stone, too large 
to be rolled away by two or more women, with so little 
noise as not to awaken men accustomed to the utmost 
alertness in their profession? Or, supposing that the 
guard should sleep, and sleep so soundly as to permit the 
disciples to remove the body of Jesus, without being 
awakened — supposing that the timid and frightened dis- 
ciples had mustered sufficient courage to steal away the 
body of that Master, whom their fears had made them 
abandon while living, would those guards — Roman guards, 
— have escaped punishment? Would the Chief Priests 
and their associates, who had procured them to be stationed 
at the sepulchre, to prevent the disciples from taking 
away the body, have winked at their impunity ? It is 
utterly absurd to suppose that they would. What ! men 
so deeply interested to prevent the opinion that Jesus 
was risen from the dead, be silent, when, by the negli- 
gence of the guard, all their precautions to prevent the 
disappearance of His body were defeated ! The thing is 
morally impossible. 

There remains to be considered a class of miracles of a 
particular kind — we mean prophecy, or the prediction of 
contingent events. To make out a clear case of prophecy, 
the event predicted must not be foreshown or even ren- 
dered probable by circumstances, existing at the time of 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 65 

the uttering of the prediction. It must be predicted in 
terms so unequivocal as to be fairly applicable to that 
event, and to that event alone, which is the subject of the 
prophecy. It must have such a fulfillment that the pre- 
diction may serve, after the thing predicted has come to 
pass, as a history of the event, changing the time of the 
verbs only. It is not requisite to a clear case of prophecy, 
that the character and circumstances of the coming 
event should be capable of being distinctly understood — 
were this always so, it might be pleaded that the pre- 
diction had, at least in the case of events under human 
control, led on to the fulfillment ; but, it is necessary to 
such a case, that, when the case predicted has come to 
pass, the terms, in which it was predicted, should be 
capable of being understood, as predicting the event ; and 
that the character and circumstances of the event should 
be so developed as to answer clearly to the terms of the 
prediction. Many such cases of prophecy are to be found, 
in both the Old and the New Testaments. A very few 
only of these, our time will permit us to notice ; and, 
even at these few, we shall be able merely to glance. 

1. The first prophecy we shall bring into view, you 
will find recorded in the fifteenth and seventeenth chapters 
of Genesis, which is expressed in the following words: 
" And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy 
seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, andl 
that they shall serve them ; and they shall afHiot thenk 
four hundred years ; and also that nation, whom they 
shall serve, will I judge. And, afterward, shall they 
come out with great substance. In the fourth generation, 
they shall come hither again. Unto thy seed have I 
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great 

5 



QQ THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

river, the river Euphrates." Chap, xv, 13-18. "I will 
give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land 
wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an 
everlasting possession." Chap, xvii, 8. This predictive 
promise was made to Abram, before that son was born 
from whom were to descend the nation in which it was to 
receive its fulfillment. At the time when it was made, 
the land of Canaan was occupied by powerful nations. 
What existing probability was there, then, that, in about 
five hundred years, the descendants of a child, yet to be 
born, should be in bondage four hundred years; and, 
then, should dispossess those nations of Canaan, and 
possess their country? On what grounds, of political 
calculation, could such a prediction have been hazarded ? 
Yet, this prediction was fulfilled, as fully appears in the 
after history of the descendants of Abram through Isaac. 
But one difficulty exists, in regard to this prediction — 
It assures Abram that his seed should have the land of 
Canaan for an " everlasting possession : ' whereas, it is 
certain that the descendants of Abram have not, for the 
last seventeen centuries, had that land in possession. 
But, let it be remarked, 1, That what was given to these 
descendants of Abram, as an everlasting possession, is not, 
by this predictive promise, assured to them against their 
own act. Against all encroachments from without, they 
are assured, so long as they are faithful to the covenant 
by which they hold. But, in many portions of the Sacred 
Scriptures, their competency to alienate this possession is 
distinctly recognized. But, 2, Though as was often 
predicted to this people, they have, by their sins, incurred 
a long banishment from the land, which was given to them 
jas an everlasting possession, they still claim it as theirs, 



.» 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 67 

and confidently expect to return to it, whenever they 
shall have expiated those national offences, on account of 
which they were exiled from their country. Nor is this 
expectation unwarranted. The fact, a very remarkable 
one — that the Jews, the descendants of Abram, continue 
a distinct people in all their dispersions, and notwith- 
standing the mighty motives which, almost everywhere, 
urge them to renounce their peculiarities, strongly inti- 
mates a purpose, on the part of Divine Providence, to 
employ them, in their national capacity, for some impor- 
tant end. Besides, there are many and not indistinct 
assurances, that, whenever they shall return to the way 
of righteousness, they shall be restored to their own land. 
Their great sin was the rejection of the Messiah — the 
Prophet, which Moses assured the Israelites, " God would 
raise up unto them, of their brethren, like unto him ; " 
and, for refusing to hear whom, the most dreadful punish- 
ments were threatened by Him. Till they shall return 
to the Lord, by receiving the Messiah, whom they have 
so long rejected, their right in the land of Canaan, though 
unrescinded, will continue in abeyance. Either of the 
explanations here given, is sufficient, we conceive, to 
remove the objection, arising from the expatriation of the 
Jews, to the fulfillment of the predictive promise we are 
now considering. More than four hundred years after 
the prediction was uttered, the seed of Abram came out 
from the land of Egypt, where they had been greatly 
oppressed, with great substance, and were put in posses- 
sion of the land promised to them in the prediction, with 
assurances that, unless they alienated their possession by 
rebellion against their sovereign Benefactor, that land 
should be theirs in perpetuity. This was the final 



68 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

accomplishment of the . prediction. Of the accurate 
accomplishment of that portion of the prediction which 
regarded the fortunes of this people, prior to their ob- 
taining possession of the promised land, the history of 
their descent into Egypt, of what they there suffered, of 
their deliverance and departure thence, is ample evidence, 
and need not be dwelt upon, as every reader of the Bible 
must be familiar with it. 

2. The second prophecy, asking our consideration, is 
recorded in Isa. xxxiv, 5-14, Jer. xlix, 7-18, Ezek. 
xxxv, 2-4, Amos i, 11-12, and Obadiah, 1-16. Though 
there are five prophets here cited, who prophesied indepen- 
dently of each other and at various times, yet we consider 
the prophecy as being indentical — it being, in all of them, 
of the same tenor and to the same effect. When this 
prophecy was first uttered, Edom, Idumea or Mount 
Seir — for the same country is indicated by all these 
various names — was in a flourishing condition and im- 
agined itself secure from utter overthrow. This confi- 
dence reposed, in a great degree, on the character of the 
country in general, and on the strength of their fortified 
cities in particular. Their capital city, which, in one 
language, is called Bozrah, and, in another, Petra, both 
which signify Rock, was remarkable, at once, for, its almost 
impregnable strength, and for the difficulty of a hostile 
approach. 

The tenor of the prediction, by all these prophets, was, 
1st, That the nation of Edomites or Idumeans should be 
wholly exterminated: 2nd, That their cities in genera], 
and Bozrah in particular, should cease to be inhabited, 
save by wild beasts and solitary birds ; and, 3d, That the 
country itself should become " an utter desolation." For 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 69 

many centuries, the very territory of Idumea was lost 
to the civilized geographer. The memory of the Edom- 
ites, save as preserved in the Bible, and in a few other 
very ancient writings, had perished from the minds of 
men ; and her cities have lain in such utter desolation, 
that their very existence was unknown, except to a few 
Bedouin Arabs, who knew not to what people to ascribe 
their origin. Within about a century, three or four daring 
travelers have traversed the inhospitable desert, which 
surrounds, and, indeed, constitutes what was once the 
populous country of Idumea; and their report of its 
condition bears testimony to the most exact fulfillment of 
the prediction which was uttered more than two thousand 
five hundred years ago, by some of these prophets. 
That country, once so populous and fruitful, is now desert 
and barren. Those cities, so magnificent and well-de- 
fended, are now either in oblivious ruin, or are mere 
skeletons of their former magnificence and strength — 
like the half-decayed skeleton of the Mastodon, the remains 
of Bozrah show that it was once great, Its habitations, 
tombs, theatres and temples remain in sufficient preserva- 
tion to show that a mighty and cultivated people were 
once dwellers in this City of the Rode; that here they 
lived and died — here they cultivated polite amusements, 
and worshiped some god, with imposing rites and pompous 
ceremonials. The country, on which these mighty cities 
depended, is now a sterile waste of sand and rocks, where 
scarcely sufficient pasturage grows to afford nourishment 
to the horses and camels of the few struggling Arabs that 
roam these deserts. So strikingly is accomplished a pre- 
diction of perpetual desolation to a country, and ruin to a 
people, which, twenty-five centuries ago, when the predic- 



70 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOB. 

tion was uttered, were flourishing in all the characters of 
distinguished prosperity ! 

One expression, in the prediction, however, has been 
thought irreconcilable with the actual state of things, in 
regard to the condition of Idumea ; and, therefore, it is 
concluded that the prediction has not been fulfilled. This 
expression is found in Isa. xxxiv, 10, and is as follows: 
" None shall pass through it forever." Now, it is certain, 
that, besides the Arabs, who habitually pass through the 
land of Idumea, one civilized Christian traveler, at least, 
has passed through it, from end to end. Either, then, 
this expression is not to be understood in this rigorous 
sense, or the prediction has not been fulfilled. Mr. Ste- 
phens, late of New York, the traveler alluded to above, 
understood this expression less strictly, and, we think, 
much more rationally. It is certain that the main route, 
for commercial caravans, once passed through Edom, from 
Syria and Palestine to Elath, or Eziongeber, an important 
port of the Red Sea. Now, it would have been a matter 
of no sort of importance, to a country, in a state of general 
desolation, whether individuals casually passed through it 
or not; but, it would be of very great importance, in 
describing the coming desolation of a country, to notice 
the perpetual obstruction and disuse of an important 
commercial thoroughfare ; as that obstruction and disuse 
would be at once both a cause and a consequence of such 
desolation. Mr. Stephens, therefore, understands the 
declaration, " None shall pass through it any more," etc., 
as meaning, that the important commercial route, which 
traversed the country of Idumea, and on which much of 
the prosperity of that country depended, should be broken 
up, and disused forever. After Mr. Stephens had passed 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 71 

through Idumea, in all its length, and had visited the 
ruins of its ancient capital, Bozrah, he says, in relation to 
the prophecy in general, and to this part of it in particular, 
" Even though I had been a confirmed skeptic, I had seen 
enough, in wandering, with the Bible in my hand, in that 
unpeopled desert, to tear up the very foundations of 
unbelief, and scatter its fragments to the winds." 

3. The third prophecy, of the Old Testament, to which 
we shall invite your attention, respects the fate of Babylon, 
just coming to the acme of its greatness, at the time the 
prophecy was delivered. You will find this prophecy 
recorded in Isa. xhi, 17-22, in the following terms : " Be- 
hold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall 
not regard silver ; and, as for gold, they shall not delight 
in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to 
pieces ; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the 
womb : their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, 
the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' 
excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and 
Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it 
be dwelt in from generation to generation : neither shall 
the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds 
make their fold there : but wild beasts of the desert shall 
lie there ; and their houses shall be full of doleful crea- 
tures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance 
there; and wild beasts of the island shall cry in their 
desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces ; 
and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be 
prolonged." To the same purpose are many other pre- 
dictions, both of Isaiah and others of the prophets. In 
this prophecy, Babylon is called " the glory of kingdoms, 
— the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency ; " and, according 



72 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

to historians, this eulogy is not at all extravagant. It 
was, as we are informed by the historian, an exact square 
of fifteen miles, containing an area of no less than two 
hundred and twenty-five square miles. It was surrounded 
by a wall, constructed of large bricks cemented by bitu- 
men. This wall was three hundred and fifty feet in 
height, and eighty-seven feet in thickness; and was 
surrounded by a wide and deep ditch, lined with brick 
and filled with water. The capacity of the ditch may be 
inferred from the fact that the bricks, of which the wall 
was constructed, were made of the clay dug from it. 
There were twenty-five gates on each side of the city, all 
of which were made of solid brass ; and, between every 
two of these gates, were three towers. A tower was at 
each corner, and three towers between each of these and 
the next gate on every side. Corresponding with these 
gates, were streets, running through the whole extent of 
the city, and crossing each other at right angles. Besides 
these streets, which were one hundred and fifty feet 
wide, there was one broad street running all around the 
city, between the wall and the outer row of houses. This 
street was two hundred feet broad. Thus the city was 
disposed in six hundred and seventy-six squares, of equal 
magnitude ; being each five-eighths of a mile, including 
the breadth of a street. The houses stood only upon the 
streets — the interior of the squares being occupied as 
gardens, yards, and pleasure-grounds. From this state- 
ment may be gathered the greatness and strength of 
Babylon. The filling up of this grand outline was worthy 
of it in all respects. But it does not correspond to the 
design of this Discourse to enter into such particulars as 
would be involved in a description of bridges, temples, 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 73 

palaces and hanging-gardens. Its situation was, as might 
well be inferred from its greatness and magnificence, in 
the highest degree eligible — being in the heart of a most 
fertile country, and on the banks of the great and navi- 
gable river Euphrates. Its strength rendered it highly 
improbable that it should be taken by assault ; and, being 
stored with provisions for twenty years, it was equally 
improbable that it should be taken by siege. But, even 
admitting that it should be taken, who could have ima- 
gined, considering its greatness and grandeur, and the 
peculiar eligibility of its situation, that it would, b}^ the 
conqueror, be abandoned to ruin ? Yet, so was it deter- 
mined, in the councils of Him, who doeth His pleasure 
upon earth ; and so was it predicted, two thousand five 
hundred and fifty years ago. This glory of kingdoms was 
to sink into utter desolation ; and the place of this beauty 
of the Chaldees' excellency, was to become the haunt of 
doleful and loathsome beasts, and birds, and reptiles. 
Man was to forsake, after having destroyed it : so that 
even the Arab should not pitch the tent of his temporary 
sojourning in it, nor shepherds rest in its habitations, 
while their flocks were feeding in the ample plains by 
which it was surrounded. But, by what means was this 
utter desolation of a city, so favorably situated, so strongly 
and beautifully built, to be brought to pass? 

No folly of man could have been so great as, inten- 
tionally, to destroy a possession of so much value ! How, 
then, was it to be brought about ? In the first place, in 
taking the City, Cyrus, at the head of the Persian and 
Median armies, with immense labor, diverted the main 
body of the water flowing through the City, in the Eu- 
phrates, into a canal dug for the purpose. This had two 



74 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

pernicious effects upon the condition of Babylon. It 
rendered the navigation of the Euphrates to the City 
difficult, if not impracticable — cutting off, by this means, 
one of the main sources of wealth and even of comfort 
which it had previously enjoyed. Meantime, the waters 
of the river, thrown out of their proper channel, by this 
contrivance of Cyrus, spread themselves over the low 
grounds in the neighborhood of the City, creating immense 
swamps, destroying large tracts of fertile land, upon the 
cultivation of which the City had depended for much of 
its supplies, and generating the causes of disease, in the 
miasma of the swamp, created by the spread of waters. 
In the second place, the building of Seleucia, by the Mace- 
donian conquerors, and the Ctesiphon by the later Persians, 
in the neighborhood of Babylon, drew away its inhabitants; 
till, finally, it was so utterly deserted by men, that the 
kings of Persia established a park for wild beasts over its 
site — bringing thus together, on this devoted spot, the 
wild beasts of the desert and the wild beasts of the islands, 
which latter had established themselves in the lakes and 
swamps formed about the City. Now, and for ages past, 
even the site of this once glorious City is unknown ; but, 
what is supposed to be that site, answers so accurately, in 
its character of fearful desolation, to the representation in 
the prophecy, as affords presumptive evidence of its 
identity. No history of the forlorn condition of what was 
Babylon, written at the present time, could more justly 
describe its actual state, than it is described in the prophecy, 
uttered when it was in the height of its splendor, and in 
the maturity of its strength, with no indications of its 
fading glory or its wasting energy. And, is not this a 
clear case of prophecy ? What could be clearer ? 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 75 

4. We shall cite one more prophecy from the Old 
Testament, which you will find in Isa. lii, 13-15, and the 
fifty-third Chapter entire. It describes a Personage, 
remarkable for purity and sincerity, for innocence and 
meekness, for patience and prudence; but, especially is 
He described as remarkable for His benevolence towards 
mankind, in submitting to bear their sorrows, to suffer for 
their sins, and to make intercession for them, while their 
hearts were mad with rage, and their hands lifted up in 
rebellion against Him. Not less remarkable is repre- 
sented the reception He was to meet with, from those 
whom it was His business, in His life and suffering, to 
benefit. They would see no form nor comeliness in Him, 
to render Him desirable. Hence, they would despise and 
reject Him, and would, contemplating His sorrows and suf- 
ferings, esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted 
as a transgressor. He would be imprisoned, tried, and, 
though innocent as a lamb, would be led to the slaughter — 
in which slaughter, He was to be numbered and associated 
with the wicked ; and, yet, He was, because of His immacu- 
late purity, notwithstanding the ignominy of His death, to 
have His grave with the rich. After having been thus igno- 
minously slaughtered, after having rendered His soul an 
offering for the sin of those in whose behalf He was bruised, 
wounded and slain, He would be exalted, extolled and 
elevated ■ — should see His seed, the travail of His soul — 
should prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah 
should prosper in His hands, especially in that many, 
whose iniquities He had borne, and for whom He had 
made intercession, should be justified by the knowledge 
of Him ; so that He should be satisfied for all His humilia- 
tion, shame and suffering, in the triumph of His benevolent 



76 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

exertions in behalf of the human race. To no other person 
known to history, but to Jesus Christ, is this description 
applicable. To Him, it is so exactly applicable, that, by 
Christians, Isaiah, for thus accurately delineating the char- 
acter of their Divine Master, seven centuries before that 
character was displayed to the world, in His life, has been 
called the evangelical prophet ; and the Earl of Rochester, 
one of the greatest wits and most determined infidels, of 
the licentious age of Charles the Second, of England, who 
undertook the overthrow of the Christian religion, was 
convinced, by examining this prophecy, and comparing it 
with the Gospel history, that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
God, and that the Christian Religion is a Revelation from 
God. So exactly is the character, delineated in this 
prophecy, suited to Jesus Christ, and so exclusively is it 
suited to Him, that we candidly affirm it to be our opinion 
that no man, of sound understanding, can compare the 
prophecy with the biography of Jesus Christ, recollecting 
that the prophecy was extant among the Jews seven 
hundred years before Christ lived, without being con- 
vinced, as the Earl of Rochester was. 

We shall notice but one prophecy contained in the 
New Testament; not because there are not many which 
are well worthy the most attentive consideration, but, 
because this Discourse is already becoming too long; 
and, because, either that those prophecies have not yet 
received their fulfillment, or that their complete fulfillment 
is matter of New Testament record — a circumstance which 
allows the suspicion that the prophecy and the fulfillment 
may have been fitted to each other by the writer. We say 
' allows the suspicion ? — it by no means authorizes it. 
The prophecy you are now to consider is in Luke xix, 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 77 

43, 44, and is in these words : " The days shall come upon 
thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, 
and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 
and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children 
within thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one stone 
upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy 
visitation." This terrible comminatory prediction was 
addressed to Jerusalem, then in a flourishing condition, 
and under the protecting wing of the Roman Eagle. As 
yet, those seditions and insurrections against the Roman 
authority, which led on to the destruction of Jerusalem, had 
not displayed themselves, nor were there any sufficient 
tendencies to such seditions and insurrections evinced to 
warrant a prediction, by political sagacity alone, of the 
hostility of the now friendly and protecting government 
of Rome. But, had it been otherwise, who would have 
risked his character of prophet, by predicting, without 
Divine impulse, that the Romans would take the City, 
which even Titus declared he could never have taken, 
if Jehovah had not fought against it ? Or, even sup- 
posing that the City should be taken, who would have 
dared to predict its utter destruction by the conqueror ? 
Who would have thought of such a thing ? Would he 
not wish to preserve a City of so much note as Jerusalem 
was ; if only as a monument of his own glory, in sub- 
duing it ? Would he not, at least, wish to preserve that 
Temple, which was the crown of architectural glory ? 
We are informed that Titus, the Roman General, did 
wish and endeavor to preserve them. But a more effec- 
tive determination than that of Titus, had decreed their 
ruin, and that decree he could not disannul. The inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem knew not — valued not the time of 



78 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

their visitation — they "rejected the counsel of God 
against themselves" — accepted not, nay, crucified the 
Messiah of God, who was sent to them for their salvation, 
and invoked the punishment of His blood-shedding upon 
themselves and their children, and, therefore, their house 
was left unto them desolate - — therefore, the awful pre- 
diction, we are now considering, was fulfilled upon them 
to the uttermost. The destruction of Jerusalem was 
described by Josephus, a Jewish Priest, an eye witness 
of the event; and, so minutely exact is the coincidence 
of the prediction with the account, both of the siege, and 
of the destruction of Jerusalem, that, leaving the spirit 
of prophecy out of view, we must suspect that the 
historian had had the prophecy in his view, and had 
studiously conformed his narrative to its description of 
those events. Such a coincidence no sober-minded man 
could possibly believe to have been fortuitous. The truth 
is, that He, who uttered the prediction, saw the " end 
from the beginning," and spoke of events that had not 
yet occurred, as clearly as though they were already ex- 
isting. This, then, is another clear case of prophecy. 

The argument from miracles, in support of the position 
that the Bible is the word of God, is shortly this — A 
miracle can be performed only by the power of God ; but, 
God would not exert His power in confirmation of a 
pretended Revelation of Himself and His will ; and, 
therefore, when a miracle is performed to attest a pro- 
fessed Revelation from God, we are authorized to conclude 
that that Revelation is what it professes to be. A Reve- 
lation, attested by miracles, is, thereby, proved to be a 
Revelation from God. The Bible is attested by miracles, 
and claims to be a Revelation ; therefore the Bible is a 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 79 

Revelation from God. Prophecy is a species of miracle, 
in which not the power, but the prescience of God is 
exerted ; and the argument which is valid in regard to 
the employment of the former attribute, is equally so in 
regard to that of the latter. We can no more believe 
that God would attest a pretended Revelation, by en- 
dowing its promulgator with science to foretell future 
events, than that He would endow him with power to raise 
the dead. As we think we have made it abundantly 
appear that miracles, both of power and of science, have 
been wrought, to attest the Bible, as a Revelation from 
God, we shall conclude that the Bible contains the Word 
of God, and shall close this part of the argument. 

3. We would argue that the Scriptures, especially those 
of the New Testament, are the Word of God, from the 
fact, that the promulgators of this professed Revelation 
could have had no other motive but the obligation of 
truth, to deliver their testimony in its support as such — 
that, in fact, they had the strongest possible motives, this 
excepted, to suppress that testimony. Let it be dis- 
tinctly recollected that the writers of the New Testament 
Scriptures do not give their opinions, but state facts. 
They profess to tell us, not what they believe, but what 
they know. It is well known that opinion may have all 
the influence on practice, that knowledge would have ; 
and that the falsehood of an opinion does not, in the 
smallest degree, lessen its efficiency. Men have patiently 
suffered and cheerfully died in support of opinions most 
egregiously false. They believed those opinions true, 
and, therefore, love of truth sustained them in suffering 
and dying for them. But, who ever heard of any one 
suffering long and patiently, and dying, resigned and 



80 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

cheerful, in attestation of a fact that he knew to be false? 
The facts recorded in the New Testament, however 
mysterious in their metaphysical relations they might be, 
were, considered simply as facts, such as no man of 
common-sense could fail to understand. For instance : 
when they were upon the Lake Genesareth, in a storm, 
and received their Master into the ship from the water, 
on which He had been walking, could the disciples be 
mistaken ? Or, when they heard Him say, to the winds, 
raging with violence, and to the waves, dashing with fury, 
66 Peace, be still ! " and, when they saw an instant calm 
succeed the violence of the storm, how could they fail to 
understand the facts in the case ? Or, how could they 
be in err^r, in regard to the facts, when they saw their 
Master take the daughter of Jairus, whom all admitted to 
be dead, or the widow's son of Nain, who was being carried 
out to be buried, by the hand, and, by a simple command 
to arise, restore them to life, and to their friends ? And, 
so, with regard to nearly all the miracles, by which Jesus 
authenticated His Mission and His Revelation. 

Now, in delivering their testimony, in regard to the 
pretensions and doctrines of the Messiah, and to the 
miracles by which He established those pretensions and 
authenticated those doctrines, His disciples knew before- 
hand that they could hope for no worldly advantage ; but, 
on the contrary, that they would incur all the various 
forms of worldly evil that the malice of wicked men, 
inveterately opposed to their Master, could inflict on 
them. They knew that they would be dissociated from 
Jews and Gentiles — that men would " separate them 
from their company," as pestiferous and vile ; that they 
would be liable to lawless violence, upon both their 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 81 

property and their persons, for which they could expect to 
obtain, if they should even seek it, no redress; besides, 
that they should be liable to fines and confiscations, by 
the civil authority ; that their reputation would be placed 
at the mercy of every slanderous tongue, which would say, 
u all manner of evil of them," till their names should be 
cast out, as the concentration of wickedness, and, finally, 
that "whosoever should kill them," either by lawless 
violence or by legal forms, should. glory in the bloody 
deed, as having thereby done " God service." All this 
they knew ; for, their Master had taught them to expect 
all this; and they had, moreover, in the fate of that 
Master, beheld the character of their own destiny. Nor, 
were they long in confirming the apprehensions they were 
thus taught to entertain, by ample experience of the 
malignity with which the world regarded their adherence 
to Jesus, and the violence with which they would wreak 
that malignity upon those who were steadfast in their 
testimony to His character and works. And, is it not 
utterly improbable that men, in their senses, with the 
warnings of their Master still sounding in their ears, and 
with the awful premonitions of what they were to expect^ 
manifested in the treatment their Master received in the 
desecrated temple, in the polluted judgment hall of Pilate,, 
and in the bloody scenes of Calvary, should, even while, 
the storm of popular fury still raged, with unabated 
violence, stand up, in the most public places in Jerusalem, 
and bear their testimony to the facts of the Gospel 
history, if they had not known those facts to be true ? 
Nothing could exceed the absurdity of this supposition, 
unless, perhaps, the supposition that the high-born Saul 
of Tarsus should have become a witness for Jesus, without 



82 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

resistless evidence of the truth of the testimony he was to 
bear. What absurdity could be greater than to suppose 
that he, whose education had been most strictly Phari- 
saical, that is, most inimical to Christ ; who had, with a 
conscience of doing right, engaged heartily in persecuting 
the disciples of Jesus, and who was in a course of employ- 
ment, by the ecclesiastical authorities of Judea, which 
promised him the most enviable as well as speedy promo- 
tion, should renounce all his prejudices, abandon all his 
high connections, and forego all his probable honors, to 
follow a crucified Master, in poverty and in disgrace, to a 
violent death ; unless the facts, which he assures us were 
distinctly made known to him, in person, by Jesus Christ, 
particularly the fact of His resurrection, were undeniably 
authentic, and the Revelation they attested really from 
God, and of the utmost importance to man? Lord 
Lyttletonhad good reason to affirm that the u Conversion 
and Apostleship of St. Paul," the same as Saul of Tarsus, 
"in the circumstances in which they occurred, were 
sufficient of themselves, to establish a moral certainty 
that the Christian Religion is from God." It is a 
principle in law, that testimony given in the article of 
death, is of the highest authority. Paul assures us that, 
as a Christian apostle, " he had the sentence of death in 
himself; " and, most solemnly asseverates that his life was 
a daily death. The testimony which he bore, then, was 
of this highest order ; for, so far as moral effect was 
concerned, he was always in what lawyers call extremis. 
Nor, was he, in this particular, peculiar. All the apostles, 
and, indeed, all the primitive Christians, those especially 
who publicly testified in behalf of their religion, were 
every moment, liable to become the victims of their 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 83 

adherence to that testimony. Yet, how many there were, 
"who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word of 
Christ/' who "took joyfully the spoiling of their goods ;" 
who suffered themselves to become the hated of all men, 
to be considered " the filth and the offscouring of all 
things," and who even "counted not their lives dear unto 
themselves, so that they might finish their course with 
joy, and the ministry which they had received of the 
Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." 
And what could have induced them to and sustained 
them in this course, but a perfect persuasion that the 
testimony which they delivered was true ? Or, what 
could have produced this persuasion, in the case of eye- 
witnesses, if, in very deed, the mighty works ascribed to 
Him, had not been performed by Jesus Christ in authen- 
tication of His mission and His doctrines — in other 
words, if the Scriptures of the New Testament were not 
known by them to be the Word of God. 

4. Another argument, to prove that the Scriptures are 
the Word of God, may be drawn from the success with 
which they were attended, first, in bringing the Israelites 
under the authority of those of the Old Testament ; and, 
secondly, in the rapid spread of the Gospel, throughout 
Judea, and, then, during the lifetime of the apostles, 
extensively in Asia, Africa and Europe. In about three 
hundred years, so extensively was it spread, and its au- 
thority recognized, that what was called the Empire of the 
world was subjected, at least nominally, to its dominion. 
Be the spirit or precepts of the Gospel right or wrong, 
of God or from some other agency and teaching, this, at 
least, is certain — that they are not in accordance with the 
temper and propensities of human nature ; nay, that they 



84 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

are directly repugnant to them. How, then, are we to 
account for the spread of the Gospel in the world, with 
such astonishing and unexampled rapidity ? Most of the 
apostles and other primitive teachers of Christianity, were 
plain, unlettered men, without the logic of sophists and the 
rhetoric of orators. The principal exception to this rule 
informs us himself, that he labored under some disadvan- 
tages of person and utterance, which rendered his personal 
ministry weak and contemptible, in the estimation of fas- 
tidious hearers. The sect, called Christians, was despised, 
as consisting of poor, mean-spirited and unsocial persons — 
hating all, and deserving by all to be hated. Not only 
were they not sustained, in their efforts for the spread 
of the Gospel, by the influence of priests and by the 
authority of magistrates, but both were in stern and 
irreconcilable hostility to their enterprise. The utmost 
that the most benevolent and upright magistrates would 
concede, in their behalf, was that they should not be 
sought for to be punished ; but even such magistrates 
decreed that, when accused, unless they retracted their 
Christianity, they must suffer.. Now, in these circum- 
stances, and with a religion and morality to which human 
nature is, and always has been, inveterately hostile, what 
would have carried the Gospel beyond the limits of Judea? 
What could have spread it over all the regions of the 
earth, where the Greek, Latin and Hebrew, or Chaldaic and 
cognate languages were spoken, in the short space of forty 
years from the crucifixion of its Author, as a malefactor 
and a slave ? What, in about three hundred years, could 
have placed it on the throne of the Caesars ? What, so 
soon, could have rendered it the supreme law of the 
Roman world? Can it be accounted for on any ordinary 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 85 

principles of human calculation ? We think not. We 
verily believe that, unless the primitive teachers of Chris- 
tianity had been able to bring indisputable evidence of 
Divine attestation to the Gospel, especially in regard to 
the Resurrection of Christ, we never should have heard 
of that Gospel, or should have heard of it merely as an 
ill devised and abortive attempt at imposition. Nor, does 
it materially affect the argument that, in the wide-spread- 
ing of the Gospel, many of those who ostensibly embraced 
it were not sincere. Men do not embrace what they hate, 
without some powerful motive to influence them. We 
suppose such a motive to have resulted from the manifest 
authenticity of the Gospel, putting the reputation for 
intelligence or honesty, of those who rejected it, in 
jeopardy with the people. The people, unsophisticated 
by theories, unrestrained by the pride of superior discern- 
ment, uninfluenced by considerations of conflicting inter- 
ests, sooner pereeive and bow to the force of newly dis- 
covered truth, than those who are more cultivated, but 
more fettered by established habits of thinking and re- 
strained by pride of reputation, and the interest attached 
to settled modes of applying the principles which have 
been before received and relied upon. But, whenever the 
mass of the people addict themselves to opinions which 
regulate practice, whether in social or political morality, 
those who are considered the elite soon follow, whether 
honestly or not, in the route of the multitude. The 
Gospel, until it had gained the honest convictions of the 
mass of the community, by the resistless force of its appre- 
ciated evidence, never could exert this indirect influence 
which we have just considered. On the contrary, that 
indirect influence was opposed to it ; and, therefore, its 



86 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

earliest disciples, in every distinct community, must have 
been honest in their acceptance of it, as they not only had 
no motive to receive it insincerely, but had, moreover, the 
strongest possible motives not thus to receive it. We 
conclude, therefore, that, without overpowering evidence 
of its Divine authority, the Gospel never could have 
spread at all, much less could have gone on, conquering 
obstacles, and winning its widening way, till the Roman 
world was captive to its strength of evidence and its force 
of influence. We shall now attempt to sustain, 

II. Our second proposition, that this u Word, or Reve- 
lation of God is Truth ; ' L e., that it represents truly the 
Divine character, and the nature, the condition, the obliga- 
tions, the duties and the capabilities of man. We shall 
be able to do little more than state the various terms of 
this proposition — so much time has been occupied in treat- 
ing the first part of our subject. We can judge of truth, in 
the representations of the Divine character, which we find 
in the Scriptures, only by our own view of their reasona- 
bleness — there being no other standard by which we can 
test them. The same is true, to some extent, with regard 
to what concerns man, especially to what concerns his 
capabilities. 

The representations of the character of God are that 
He is one God, and that there is none other ■ — that He is 
without beginning or cause, and without dependence, or 
change, or end — that He is a Spirit, a Being purely 
intelligent and moral in His nature — that all the attri- 
butes of His nature are in infinite perfection, His wisdom 
and power, His holiness and goodness, His justice and His 
truth being wholly incapable of either addition or limita- 
tion — that He is the Creator of the heavens and of the 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 87 

earth, and of all things that are in them, whether inani- 
mate, animate, intellectual or spiritual existences; and, 
that, as He is their Creator, so He upholds, subsists, and 
continues in being all that exists — that He is the rightful 
and righteous Sovereign of all the creatures He hath 
made and that are sustained by Him, — and that He is, 
therefore, entitled to the homage and obedience of all 
such creatures as are capable of rendering such homage 
and service, and will adjudge to all such the reward or the 
punishment they have deserved, by their obedience or 
disobedience to His requirements. These representations 
of the character of God are recognized, by all who have 
read the Bible, as being found there. There are other 
representations, which far the greater number of Christians, 
and we among them, believe to be clearly contained in the 
Bible, which, by many, are denied to be there made. We 
find, in the Bible, a distinct representation of a Trinity of 
equal Persons in the Unity of the Godhead, known, in 
relation to the plan of human salvation, as Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost. These Three Persons we understand 
the Scriptures clearly to represent One God. The mode 
of the Divine existence is not attempted to be explained, 
though represented; and hence, we do not profess to 
understand how these Three Persons are One God, though 
we believe the fact. We, nevertheless, do understand that 
they are not Three, in the same respect that they are One. 
This would be impossible and absurd; but, we can conceive 
that these Persons may, in another sense than they are 
Three, be One; though we understand not how they are 
so. This Trinity in Unity we understand to be not only 
clearly a doctrine of Revelation, but one, moreover, on 
which the truth of other important Revelations of the 



88 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

Bible essentially depend. It is not, however, our present 
purpose to go into an argument to show that this is a part 
of the representation of the Divine character, contained 
in the Bible, our business now being to insist on the truth 
of what is revealed, rather than to contend with other 
Christians concerning the meaning of certain parts of the 
representations contained in such Revelation. All agree 
that the Bible represents the Deity as One; and all must 
agree that this one God is represented as acting, in regard 
to human events, under the designations of The Father, 
The Son, and The Holy Ghost; and, whether proper 
personality, or merely official designation is intended by 
these denominations, is, though an important question, not 
within the scope of our present purpose. 

Whether the above representations of the Divine char- 
acter be true or false, they are peculiar to the Bible. 
The wisest people, without a Revelation, who ever lived 
on the earth, peopled the universe with no less than thirty 
thousand gods, not one of whom was without beginning or 
dependence in his existence. He, who was their supreme 
divinity, Jupiter, was supreme by usurpation upon the 
rights of his own father, Saturn, and was limited in his 
power, by that indefinite, inscrutable, non-existent thing 
denominated Fate or Necessity. Creatures of Time, and 
limited in their powers, the deities of Greece, were agitated 
by the passions, and addicted to the vices which prevail 
among men. Their best and greatest gods were lascivious, 
irascible, revengeful, treacherous; and, upon sufficient 
temptation, would lie like Cretans. In short, their char- 
acter was just such as, in any well-ordered community of 
Christians, would subject a man to utter infamy. And, 
if such were the gods of Greece and Rome, where 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 89 

philosophy and poetry and eloquence were carried to the 
highest degree of excellence, what must have been their 
characters among men who enjoyed not these advantages ! 
Suns, and stars, and planets ; men and beasts, and birds ; 
creeping things, and vegetables, and rocks — whatever a 
disordered imagination endowed with attributes either 
favorable or formidable, were deified, worshiped and feared 
by men in a state of barbarism or of semi-civilization. 
We affirm that nothing could be more reasonable than the 
representations of the Divine character, found in the 
Bible ; and we also affirm that those representations are 
to be found no where else, in the pages of religious history 
or philosophy, unless taken from the Bible. 

The representations, in the Scriptures, of the nature, 
conditions, obligations, duties and capabilities of man, have 
all the characters of truth which belong to those that con- 
cern the character of the Deity. Man is there repre- 
sented as partly a material and partly a spiritual being — 
as intelligent and moral in his nature — as in a condi- 
tion of utter dependence on God, for life, in its be- 
ginning and continuance, and for all good things — as 
being degraded and depraved or disordered in his moral 
tendencies, and under condemnation by the law of his 
Sovereign Creator, for its violation — as obliged to render 
to God the homage of all his moral affections, and of all 
his active powers, in a constant employment of all those 
affections and powers to His glory — as obliged to consider 
man as his fellow creature, and to regard him with an 
affection, and observe towards him a conduct, such as, in 
his own case, he expects or desires to be rendered to him 
by man. The particular duties, under both these obliga- 
tions, are clearly stated in the Bible, all comprised within 



90 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

the comprehensive requirements — " to do justly, to love 
mercy and to walk humbly with God." Of the capabilities 
of man, much is said in the sacred volume. Created in 
the image of God, intelligent, moral, holy and righteous, 
he was capable of acting well his part, and of enjoying, to 
the fullest extent, the advantages of his situation. And 
he was also capable of abusing his moral power, by diso- 
beying his Sovereign — thereby forfeiting the advantages 
proper to his position, and divesting himself of his capa- 
bility of well-doing. He did thus abuse his moral power, 
and did thus forfeit his advantages, and divest himself of 
his capability of discharging his high duties : so that he 
became guilty, ruined and helpless, with only a capability 
to suffer the ill-effects of his folly and of his sin. But, the 
Scriptures reveal to us a remedial scheme, in which atone- 
ment is made, by one of the Persons of the Godhead, incar- 
nated in humanity for that purpose ; an influence is exerted 
by another of those Persons, which restores the cast-off 
ability to serve and please God, while the other Person 
of the Godhead, in consideration of the merits of the 
atonement made for man, extends pardon to those who 
profit by the influence exerted upon them, to observe the 
course prescribed for them as sinners, in repenting towards 
God, and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, the 
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are represented as 
being engaged to restore man to his original capabilities ; 
yet, so, as not to destroy his moral nature and accountable 
relation. But, even when men are restored to a capability 
to serve and please God, and to enjoy the advantages of 
their position, the same influence, which restored them, 
and the same merit, through which they were restored, is 
necessary to a continuance of their capabilities in these 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 91 

respects. The Scriptures represent the capabilities of 
fallen man for salvation, to be, from first to last, only of 
grace. To these capabilities the Scriptures, in their repre- 
sentations, add that of immortality — an immortality, after 
the resurrection of the body, of the entire man — an 
immortality to those who profit by the plan of recovery, 
devised and operated by Divine Benevolence, of happiness 
commensurate to those powers of enjoyment which reno- 
vated human nature will possess — and an immortality of 
such suffering as can be endured by a spiritual existence, 
under the curse of Omnipotence, to those who reject the 
counsel of God against themselves. Such, briefly, are 
the interesting representations, which the Scriptures afford 
us, of the nature, conditions, obligations, duties and capa- 
bilities of man. And, which of these representations does 
not commend itself to the reason of every sober-minded 
man, to whom they have been distinctly made ? And, 
how utterly unlike are they to the representations of those 
things, which men, untaught of Heaven, are found to 
make ! 

We shall now bring this long discourse to a close, 
recapitulating, briefly, the various topics of argument, 
which have been treated above. We first, after assuming 
a few points, as either unquestionable, or, probably 
unquestioned by our audience, argued that it was proba- 
ble, a priori, that God would make a Revelation of 
Himself and of His will to man : because, 1, It was 
important for man, in order to his properly worshiping 
and serving God, to have an adequate knowledge of God, 
and of His will; and, 2, Because without such a Revela- 
tion, he could not have the knowledge of either the one 
or the other. We next observed that there is extant a 



92 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

Volume of Tracts, written by different persons, at various 
and distant times, claiming to contain Revelations of God 
and His will, which maintain a striking consistency 
throughout, even when a change of dispensation, or mode 
of administering the Divine Government took place ; that 
these Revelations were not isolated and inoperative, but 
intended for practical operation, in forming peculiar and 
discriminated communities ; that the principles on which 
such societies were to be formed were incongruous to the 
tempers and propensities of human nature ; that all these 
characters were unsuitable to the supposition that the 
Bible is either a fable or an imposture. We further 
observed, that these Sacred Writings, though oftener 
copied and translated than all other books together, have 
been preserved in such inviolate integrity, that no impor- 
tant fact or doctrine has been affected by the various 
readings, of which there are many, produced by numerous 
copyings and translations. 

We next considered the evidence from miracles, by 
which the claims of these professed Revelations were 
authenticated; and, we particularly examined six of these 
miracles, three from the Old, and three from the New 
Testament. We represented prophecy as a peculiar kind 
of miracle ; and considered several prophecies, with their 
respective fulfillments. The gist of the argument from 
miracles, we stated to be, that God only could perform 
miracles; that He would not perform them in support of 
imposture; that He had performed them to authenticate 
the Revelations in the Bible, and that, therefore, those 
Revelations were from God — were the Word of God. 
We next considered the evidence for the validity of the 
Revelations of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, 



THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 93 

arising from the facts that the promulgators of the Gospel, 
who were eye-witnesses to the matters concerning which 
they testified, could not haye been mistaken in regard to 
the facts, — and could have had no inducement to deceive 
others, by a false deposition in regard to those facts ; but 
had, on the contrary, apart from the obligation of truth, 
the strongest possible motives to suppress' their testimony. 
Our last argument, to prove the proposition, that the Bible 
is a Revelation from God, was taken from the success of 
the promulgation of its contents in the world. That 
success could not have been calculated on, either from 
the congeniality of its doctrines and precepts to the 
temper and propensities of human nature — from the 
superior human qualifications of its advocates, or from the 
favorable disposition towards it, entertained by men of 
influence and authority. On the contrary, in all these 
respects, probability was decidedly and strongly against 
its success. But, it did succeed ; and this can be ac- 
counted for, only on the supposition that the Gospel is a 
Revelation from God and important to man. Our final 
attempt was to show that this Revelation from God is 
truth ; that is, that it truly represents the Divine char- 
acter, and the nature, the condition, the obligations, the 
duties and the capabilities of man. How far we have 
succeeded in our arduous attempt, we may not presume 
to judge. 

If the Bible is a Revelation from the God of truth, and, 
if it presents to man the most important of all truths, how 
extreme must be the culpable folly of those who neglect 
acquaintance with its contents ! how extreme the wicked 
madness of those who reject the authority of its require- 
ments 1 And, how unutterable the goodness of God, in 



94 THE SCRIPTURES A REVELATION FROM GOD. 

giving us " His word, to be a lamp to our feet, and a light 
to our paths, to guide our feet in the way of peace ! " 
With these reflections, we conclude; only commending 
this feeble attempt to glorify God, to His merciful con- 
sideration and efficient patronage. Amen ! 



\ 



DISCOURSE II. 

THE EXISTENCE, MANNER OF EXISTENCE, NATURE AND PERFEC- 
TIONS OF GOD. 

" To us there is but one God." — 1 Corinthians, viii, 6. 

The existence of God is a necessary doctrine in every 
system of religion, whether revealed or natural; and is so 
congenial to the dictates of reason and common sense that 
it has been believed in every nation, with whose history 
we are sufficiently acquainted to have ascertained what 
they did believe. It is true, that, with regard to the char- 
acter to be ascribed to this Divine Being, opinions have 
been exceedingly various, according to the means of infor- 
mation from which such opinions were derived ; but with 
respect to the simple fact, that there is a Supreme Being, 
there has been so little difference, that it may be said to 
be established by common consent. There may be some 
who do no't believe the fact of such an existence ; but, 
they are so few, that many who even deny the authority 
of the Bible, as the word of God, maintain the utter 
impossibility of such incredulity among rational beings. 
And, indeed, there is so much reasonableness in the char- 
acter of an Atheist drawn by the Psalmist at a single 
stroke — " The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
God,"- — that few have the hardihood to avow it, in the 
face of the world, if they are even so unfortunate as to be 
conscious of it themselves. 

But, although almost every man believes there is a 
Supreme Being at the head of the universe, yet, to a 

y o 



96 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

great proportion of them, it is about the same as if there 
were no God ; for, to them, the doctrine of the existence 
of such a Being is a matter of mere speculation — exer- 
cising no influence over either their principles, their prac- 
tice or their enjoyment. As a general rule, " God is not 
in all their thoughts," or if the recollection of His existence 
sometimes forces itself upon them, it either passes un- 
marked through their minds without leaving any lasting 
impression, or is banished with eager haste ; because the 
impression it makes is unpleasant. Now, it cannot but be 
manifest, that, if there be a God, His existence must be 
one of the most interesting facts with which we can be 
conversant ; especially when it is considered that, as our 
Creator and Benefactor, He is entitled to our homage and 
service. Even Natural Religion, in its rudest forms, has 
ever required that this homage should be rendered to 
Him, in worship, reverence, gratitude and obedience. We 
know not therefore, dear brethren, that we could better 
occupy your attention, on this occasion, than by engaging 
you in the contemplation of the existence of this Divine 
Being, the manner of that existence, His nature and his 
attributes or perfections ; and by endeavoring to fix an 
indelible impression of them upon your minds and hearts. 
Of His existence we say, 

I. There is a Supreme Intelligence, an Eternal Mind, 
"God over all, blessed forevermore." It is not our 
purpose to enter fully into a discussion of those arguments 
derived from the wonders of nature, which go to establish 
the truth of this proposition. We have only to open our 
eyes, and evidences, clear, strong and innumerable, will 
stream in upon us, from every quarter, attesting the fact, 
that an unoriginated, omnipotent and infinitely diffusive 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 97 

Operator produced the order of things, to which we have 
given the denomination of nature. The beauty, the 
grandeur, the utility of this order of things, and the nice 
adaptation of the several parts to the whole, display a 
presence in every part ; a skill and an energy that could 
belong to only an infinitely perfect, and, therefore, an inde- 
pendently-existing Being. Nor, will it be necessary to 
accumulate proofs of the truth of this proposition, from the 
Sacred Scriptures. They not only abound in testimonies 
to the existence of God, but are, in fact, founded on that 
doctrine, as their great corner-stone. It is fundamental to 
every history they record, to every doctrine they teach, 
to every duty they inculcate, and to every system they 
establish, They announce themselves as the voice, the 
oracles, the revelations of God; and, therefore, assume the 
fact of His existence, as not needing to be proved, or as 
being sufficiently established by the single fact of their 
own existence. But we do deem it proper to urge upon 
you the frequent, the habitual consideration of this most 
important fact — the associating of it with all the interests 
in which you are concerned and with every train of 
thought in which you indulge. Such is the fatal propen- 
sity to forget God, which prevails in every unrenewed 
human heart, that it has always been found necessary to 
reiterate the impression of His existence upon the mind, 
by a frequent repetition of the simple statement of the 
fact of His existence, and, much more, by often repeated 
exhibitions of His adorable perfections. And, indeed>. 
this last appears to us so necessary in order to our having 
any clear or practical conviction of the Divine existence 
itself, that we shall employ the present occasion chiefly in 
presenting those perfections to your consideration. In 



98 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

doing this, we dare not indulge in any fanciful speculation, 
nor trust to the discoveries of the unassisted human under- 
standing, or the inductions of uninspired reason, but shall 
be wholly guided by that Revelation which God has seen 
it proper to make of Himself: fully assured that none 
but He could give any just or adequate information on 
these most important subjects. Before proceeding to 
exhibit the Divine perfections, we deem it necessary, 
briefly, to consider the manner of the existence of God, and 
his essential nature ; and, 

II. Of the manner of God's existence we say, 
1, God is self existent This proposition, from the utter 
inadequacy of human language to express the deep things 
of God, may convey an incorrect idea of the fact intended 
to be represented by it. It certainly is not intended to 
convey the idea that God originated His own existence. 
This would be a palpable absurdity. But, it is intended 
to convey the idea that the existence of God is indepen- 
dent of all without Himself. In other words, it is intended 
to represent Him as an unoriginated existence. No 
rational being, who thinks closely upon the subject, can 
avoid the conviction, that, somewhere in the universe, as 
the source or cause of all other existence, there must exist 
some Being, who exists without origination, and, conse- 
quently, without beginning. This being is God — the 
God of the Bible. This independent, unbeginning exis- 
tence of God, is strongly intimated, if not clearly ex- 
pressed, in the name, by which God made Himself known 
to Israel, by Moses — «I AM THAT I AM." Ere time 
began — throughout time's whole progress, — and even 
in the ceaseless round of unending duration, this is the 
characteristic denomination of God. In all duration, He 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 99 

is the I AM, not the HE WAS or the HE WILL BE. 

Other beings, after non-existence from eternity toe heen and 
are not now — others now are,— and still others who yet are 
not, will he; but, God is alivays the I AM. Thus indepen- 
dent, the existence of God is unassailable and immutable. 
Change cannot be predicated of independent existence. 
In such an existence, what could induce a change. De- 
pendent existence may change, in every vicissitude in the 
circumstances which surround it, and by which it is 
affected ; but, independent existence, self-supported, self- 
sufficient, and self-reliant, can receive no shock from 
without itself, can be wrought upon injuriously by no 
extraneous circumstances. Hence, God not only always IS, 
but is always the same. His aspect towards other beings 
may, at different times, be different ; but, this infers no 
change in Him — on the contrary, the difference of his 
aspect towards those beings results from His own immu- 
tability. The change is in them; and, as they have 
changed, so must their position in relation to God, and, 
consequently, His aspect towards them be changed. 

2. God is one. The Unity of God, if not purely a doctrine 
of Revelation, is, at least exceedingly rare in the systems 
of religion, which do not derive their creed from that 
source. Modern Deism affects to consider itself indepen- 
dent of Revelation, in relation to this fundamental doc- 
trine ; but, who does not know that, with rare exceptions, 
if indeed there were any, men, without Revelation, have 
alwaj^s been polytheisis ? Mahometanism is no proper 
exception, for Mahomet avowedly gave credit to both the 
Jewish and the Christian Revelations, and admitted the 
authority of their teachings; though he claimed to have 
a later Revelation, of higher, but not of opposing au- 



100 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

thority. And, we have no doubt that, for the doctrine of 
the Divine unity, he was wholly dependent on the Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testaments, and on the tradi- 
tions which had their source in those Revelations. With 
the exception of Mahometanism, where or when has there 
ever existed any system of religion, in which the unity 
of God is a recognized truth — save the Jewish and Chris- 
tian systems alone ? Nay, where shall we find an indi- 
vidual, who has not had an opportunity of drawing upon 
Divine Revelation for this doctrine, who has embraced 
the Divine unity as a doctrine of his religious creed ? 
We know not of one such. And, yet, the doctrine, that 
there is but one God so strongly commends itself to 
human reason, when it is presented fairly within her com- 
prehension, that an enlightened infidel, of our day, would 
look with pity, if not with scorn, upon any one, enjoying 
the means of information, now within the reach of all in 
Christendom, who should question its truth. The enlight- 
ened Greeks and Romans not only peopled the universe 
with thousands of gods, but derived these divinities from 
others; who, superannuated, or conquered by their rebel- 
lious offspring, were deposed from the dominion they once 
exercised, with unquestioned authority, over the affairs of 
that universe ; and, though retaining the denomination, 
had lost the power belonging to deity. How human is 
all this ! And how well are these enlightened nations — 
untaught by Revelation however — described by St. Paul : 
" Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and 
changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image 
made like to corruptible man " — even worse, into an image 
made like to "birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping 
things ! r How mean and sordid these conceptions of the 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 101 

Deity, when contrasted with the magnificent idea of a sole 
Divinity — a universal Sovereign ■ — One God — God 
over all. 

This doctrine of the Divine unity, is carefully and 
diligently taught, in both the Jewish and the Christian 
Scriptures. Authority, ridicule and argument are all 
employed to show the utter absurdity of idolatry, an off- 
shoot of polytheism, and, we believe, always resulting 
from it. The two first commandments in the Decalogue, 
are directed against polytheism and idolatry; or, more 
properly, perhaps, to the inculcation of spiritual worship 
and devotion, to the one true and living God only. Of 
His exclusive right to this worship and devotion, God 
declares Himself to he jealous; and, accordingly, most of 
the calamities which befel the Israelites, during the whole 
of their existense as an independent nation, were punitive 
visitations by the providence of God, for their dereliction 
of this doctrine, and of the duties resulting from it. On the 
other hand, every period of their history in which the 
unity of God was practically recognized, by that nation, 
is marked by distinguished virtue and prosperity : — so 
important is the doctrine of the Divine unity in the esti- 
mation of the God of providence Himself! We deem it 
unnecessary to multiply arguments or to accumulate 
proofs from the Scriptures in support of this doctrine. 
These proofs are so numerous and so well known, and the 
force of these arguments so generally admitted, that to do 
so would be a needless tax upon your forbearance and 
upon our time and toil. We proceed, therefore, 

III. To speak of the nature, — the essential nature of 
God ; and, we say that God is a spirit — a pure spirit. 
If it be said that this proposition conveys no distinct 



102 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

signification to the human mind, because none can pretend 
to know what spirit is, it may be answered that, for the 
same reason no one can understand what is meant by the 
proposition, that the pen, with which I write, is a material 
substance; because no one can pretend to know what 
matter is. We have, in fact, no more knowledge of the 
essential nature of matter than we have of the essential 
nature of spirit. All we know of either the one or the other 
is that they possess certain qualities, or, rather, that their 
qualities make certain impressions upon the mind on which 
they act. And, we have no hesitation in affirming that the 
impressions made on the human mind, by the qualities of 
spirit, are as clear, as distinct, as characteristic of the subject 
to which they belong, as are the impressions made by the 
qualities of matter. Hence we have the same kind of 
knowledge of the nature of spirit, as we have as to the na- 
ture of matter. Spirit has revealed itself, by its qualities, 
as intellectual and moral and as having a capability of acting 
upon matter. This is, perhaps, the sum of what we know 
in regard to spirit ; and this we do know as certainly as 
we can know that matter has weight, extension, figure, 
indefinite divisibility, and the vis inertice, which places it 
within the control of spirit. God, then, is an intellectual 
and moral Being, and has power, according to the measure 
of His intelligence, to control matter. We say nothing 
now of that measure — suffice it that, according to it, 
whether great or small, He can render matter subservient 
to his intelligent and moral purpose. We cannot conceive 
of spirit as a compound. It revolts our understanding to 
think of it as an aggregation of particles. By the con- 
stitution of our minds, and by what we know of spirit, we 
are compelled to consider it homogeneous — simple ; and ? 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 103 

therefore, as having no need of nutrition, in order to con- 
tinuance of existence, and as not being liable to waste and 
dissolution, from time, activity or privation. In fact, we 
can conceive of the destruction of spirit by no other 
process than annihilation, and, this, only as within the 
power of the Being who caused its existence. The 
unoriginated, purely spiritual Divinity must then be 
indestructible — emphatically and essentially the living 
God. 

Spirit, though a substantial existence, is so subtle that 
matter can be no hinderance to its presence, nor obstruc- 
tion to its movement. It pervades, with equal facility, the 
most solid forms of matter and the atmosphere ; as the 
poet has beautifully sung: 

" Walls within walls no more its passage bar 
Than unopposing space of liquid air." 

Spirit needs not the light of the sun, in order to see, nor 
the vibration of the atmosphere, for the purpose of 
hearing : " All eye, all ear, all sense," and shedding the 
light of its own effulgence on all the objects within the 
range of its operation, it apprehends all with which it is 
present, though involved in the deepest darkness, or shut 
up in the silence of unuttered thought. 

Though we are unable by means of our gross, material 
senses, to detect the presence of purely spiritual beings, 
or to enter into intercourse with them, yet, it cannot be 
doubted that such beings do recognize each others pres- 
ence, and hold familiar intercourse with one another; 
seeing that, in the case of mankind, spirits, though em- 
barrassed by an inextricable connection with matter, are 
able to recognize the presence of one another and to hold 
important, though imperfect communion with each other.. 



104 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

By what means pure spirits are able to do these things, we 
do not — cannot know. It is probable, however, that 
thought, to pure spirit, is as palpable as is figure or sound 
to our senses ? At least, this is certain with regard to 
the " Father of spirits," " He understandeth the thought 
afar off." To him " The night shineth as the day — the 
darkness and the light are both alike unto Him." Thus 
much we are able to say with confidence, concerning the 
essential nature of God. But ah ! " How little a portion 
is heard of Him ! " or, " who, by searching, can find out 
God, the Almighty to perfection ! It is higher than 
heaven: what can we do? deeper than hell: what can we 
know?" We shall now, finally, attempt an exhibition of, 
IV. The perfections or attributes of God ; and, 
1, God is eternal Unoriginated, He is without begin- 
ning. Indestructible, He is without end. But, more, we 
apprehend, is to be understood, by the eternity of God, 
than that He is without beginning or that He will have no 
end, or than both these facts together. He characterizes 
Himself as "The high and lofty One, that inhabiteth 
eternity." This seems to us to indicate that He essen- 
tially and constantly pervades all duration: that, with 
Him, there is neither past nor future — nothing like pro- 
gressive existence — no succession of duration, as with 
His creatures ; but a perpetual instant — an eternal NOW. 
Creatures inhabit only the present moment. The past is 
gone from them — the future is to come — the present 
only is occupied by them. Hence, if God inhabit eternity, 
He fills it completely as they fill the present moment 
If this were not the case, " One day with him," would 
not be " as a thousand years," nor " a thousand years 
as one day." 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 105 

A knowledge of this mode of existence, exclusively 
belonging to God, will enable us to conceive how, without 
either decreeing or working out the end, He is able to see 
it, from the beginning. We do not think it at all strange 
that we can know the events that are passing before our 
eyes ; and, we never dream that those events are, in any 
way, dependent on our knowledge for their existence ; or, 
that such of them, as are the voluntary acts of accountable 
beings, are any the less entitled to approbation or censure, 
from the mere fact that we know them. Now, if God, 
bear the same relation to eternity that we do to the present 
moment — that is, if He be present with eternity as we 
are with the present moment, is it strange that He knows 
what, to us, is future ; or that the voluntary actions of 
men, which he thus knows, are just as free and uncon- 
trolled as they would be, if He did not know them ? An 
act which is contingent in its nature is not rendered 
otherwise by the certainty with which it is known, whether 
by the Deity or by other intelligent beings. It is, strictly 
speaking, as contingent an action, after its performance, 
as before ; because, contingency is predicated of the free- 
dom of an action from control, pending its performance, 
and not of its being a future action, still capable of being 
or not being performed. Hence, the certain knotvledge of 
the performance of a contingent action, whether so known 
by man, at the time of its performance, or, by the prescient 
Divinity, ages before its performance, does not destroy its 
contingency. Our difficulty, in conceiving of a mode of 
existence so utterly different from our own, as that which 
is implied in the inhabiting of eternity, lies at the founda- 
tion of all our difficulties, in regard to what, in Theology, 
is expressed by the foreknowledge of God. Just admit 



106 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

that God knows the future in the same manner as we 
know the present ; and that he is determined not to nullify 
the freedom of his accountable creatures, and there will 
be as few difficulties in the question of foreknowledge, as 
in any question involving the mystery of the Divine 
existence and character. In thus making Himself known, 
what a stupendous idea of Himself has God revealed to 
His creatures ! How utterly nothing and vanity are we in 
His sight ! And, should we not tremble in his presence, 
and adore Him with awe and reverence ? 

2. God is everywhere present. As He inhabits eternity, 
so He pervades universal space. Could we imagine any 
part of space unoccupied by His presence, we must " limit 
the Holy One of Israel," which we may not do. He, 
Himself, asks, in a manner which is equivalent to a 
declaration of the fact — "Do not I fill heaven and 
earth ? " And, the Psalmist's highly poetical and sublime 
address to the Deity is as true as it is magnificent — "If 
I ascend into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed 
in hell, behold ! Thou art there. If I take the wings of 
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand 
shall hold me." And, indeed, should He be a moment 
absent from any part of the universe, He could not 
perform what is ascribed to Him, by both the Holy 
Scriptures and sound philosophy — viz: He could not 
support and govern all that He has made. We could 
have no rational confidence in the stability of the laws of 
nature, or in the wisdom of Divine providence, could we 
believe that the Divinity could, for a single moment, be 
withdrawn from any part of His infinite dominions. For, 
we cannot persuade ourselves that there is anything in 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 107 

dead matter capable of performing the various functions, 
which we call the laws of nature, without the constant 
impulse of intellectual energy. And, unless all the 
circumstances, which enter into the scheme of Divine 
providence, be predicated of an intimate knowledge of the 
complex affairs they are to regulate, they may be inappro- 
priate or even pernicious. And how can this perfect 
knowledge exist without universal presence? 

Let it be remembered that God is a purely spiritual 
Being ; and that spirit is essentially intellectual. A spirit 
cannot be present with aught, of either mind or matter, 
without possessing a knowledge of it, coextensive with 
the intimacy with which it is thus present. As, then, 
God is a spirit, and is present everywhere — as He reaches 
up to the highest elevation of thought, and down to the 
lowest depths of being — as He compasses the vastitude 
of the universe, and penetrates to the minutest particles 
of matter, and to the very inception of thought, He must 
be intelligently conversant with all that is in the whole 
universe. Nothing can be too vast for His comprehen- 
sion — too minute for His observation, or too complicated 
for His understanding. He not only surveys, with a 
single glance, the whole wide field of being, and traces the 
indefinitely various relations of all its parts to each other 
and to their great whole, but also marks, with minute 
inspection, the smallest atom of matter, and the slightest 
mental movement. Hence, all things, throughout the 
whole universe are, and, in the nature of things, must be 
fully and accurately understood by Him. He sees every 
aspect, bearing and relation of every fact, whether great 
or small, whether physical or spiritual; and, consequently, 
He adequately understands every such fact. To Him, 



108 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

every existing fact, no matter how complex its nature, is 
as axiomatic as that the whole is greater than any one of its 
parts is to us. How deeply interesting this view of the 
Divine character ! How well calculated to alarm the fears 
of the guilty ! How consoling to those who, conscious of 
innocence, are the objects of scorn or loathing to their 
fellow-men; or who feel themselves to be hedged about 
with difficulties and dangers from which they can perceive 
no way of escape ! "Thou God seest me ! ' is a stronger 
restraint upon vice than any array of public opinion can 
be ; for public opinion may be eluded — the vilest sinner 
may hide his transgressions from every human eye. But, 
though he may " dig deep, to hide his counsel from the 
Lord" — though he should " cover himself with darkness 
and with the shadow of death," yet is the eye of God upon 
him. " He knoweth the way," which the sinner takes — 
"He understandeth his thought afar off." And with the 
assurance of this great truth, the upright in heart will be 
sustained and emboldened, under difficulties, perplexities 
and calumnies, which, but for this, would confound and 
overwhelm him utterly. How consoling and encouraging 
to the righteous, in his afflictions, to know that his Divine 
Guardian and Protector knows all that has befallen or will 
befall him ; and that he knows equally " how to deliver 
the godly out of temptations," troubles and calumnies ! 

3. God is almighty. What can be done, He can do. 
" Is anything too hard for the Lord ? " is an interrogatory, 
which carries in it the full force of an emphatic affirmation, 
that nothing possible is too hard for Him. We have above 
ascribed to spirit a power to control matter — to render it 
subservient to intelligence, according to the measure of 
such intelligence. We have attempted to show, that the 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 109 

intelligence of God is both perfect in kind, and universal 
in extent. It follows, then, that His power must embrace 
all possibility. Intimately acquainted with all the laws of 
nature, He can as readily employ them all, in the accom- 
plishment of His purposes, as Watt, or Fulton, or Morse 
could the few laws of nature, by the control of which, they 
have so greatly benefited their species, and acquired so 
much reputation to themselves. Nay, the readiness of 
God, in subjugating all the laws of nature to His purposes, 
is incomparably greater than that of these distinguished 
philosophers and mechanics; because his knowledge of 
these is incomparably more perfect than was theirs of 
the particular laws, by means of which they accomplished 
their wonderful achievements. We go farther, and affirm 
that, not only is His knowledge of the laws of nature 
incomparably intimate — nay, absolutely perfect, both in 
kind and degree, but that those laws are really nothing 
else than the exertion of his own energy in a uniform 
direction. Material nature, of which the vis inertice is a 
recognized quality, has surely no capability of being the 
subject of law, properly speaking — it can move and 
operate only as it is impelled by a force external to itself. 
In other words, its operations must be the result of impulse 
from spiritual agency ; and, where these operations are 
uniformly in the same direction, that direction, having the 
appearance of a rule of action, receives the appellation of 
a law of nature. It is, however, properly the will of the 
spiritual Agent, whose impulse produces such uniform 
operation. This spiritual Agent, operating uniformly, so 
far as we can judge, throughout all nature, in the ordinary 
government of the physical universe, is God; and it is 
the will of God, displayed in this government, to which 



110 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD, 

we have given the title ■ — the laws of Nature. And, if 
this be so, who can question that all of power, that belongs 
to the operation of the laws of nature, is in the hands of 
God, or, more properly speaking, is directly the power 
of God? And how stupendous is this power! We 
tremble with inexpressible terror, when brought into near 
proximity with some of the operations of physical laws. 
The rage of the unbridled hurricane, as it uproots vener- 
able forests, demolishes strong-built cities, and whelms 
gallant navies in watery ruin — the dashing of ocean's 
wave, when lashed into fury by the rage of the tempest — 
the eruption of the volcano, when it pours out rivers of 
lava, to deluge vast regions in fiery destruction — not to 
speak of the more familiar, yet terrible operations of those 
laws, which often meet us in the common walks of life ; as 
the fierce rush of the consuming flame, when a city, or 
even a single human habitation, ship or steamer, freighted 
with life, is involved in the embrace of a destructive 
conflagration ; or the mysterious pestilence, as it " walketh 
in darkness," carrying dismay and death among the 
affrighted population of a stricken region. These are 
operations of nature's laws, directed by the circumstances 
in which they are performed. And, what terrible might 
do we see in them ! 

Nor are the laws of nature without beneficent, any more 
than without terrible energy. It is by means of them, 
that " the moon " knoweth " her seasons, and the sun " 
is regulated in "his going down." It is through their 
instrumentality, that " seed time and harvest, summer and 
winter, day and night ' do not come to an end. The 
beneficial character of these vicissitudes is too well known 
to require that it should be insisted on. Agriculture, 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. Ill 

commerce and the useful arts are all dependent, for their 
success, on the influence of these laws. And to them we 
are indebted for every comfort and pleasure, that is a con- 
stituent in the enjoyment of life. The sight of the eye, 
the hearing of the ear, the sensations of taste and feeling, 
and the enjoyment of delightful odors all come to us 
through their ministration. The continuance of life, as 
well as the enjoyment of life, depends on the ministry of 
these laws. All the power of these laws resides in the 
great Operator ; and, therefore, all the advantages, result- 
ing from them, flow from Him, as their proper source. 
We feel how important is the might of these laws, when 
u the heaven is as brass, and the earth as iron ; " when 
the clouds withhold the genial showers, and when " the 
ground is chapt," by the influence of drought ; when disease 
baffles the skill of the physician, and resists the efficacy of 
well proved medicine; when the jarring elements threaten 
destruction in their turmoil, or effect it in their fury. 

But, mighty as God is, in wielding the laws of nature, 
we claim for Him a power above and beyond those laws. 
If they be nothing else but the exertion of His own 
energy, in the uniform direction, is there aught to hinder 
Him, when He shall see occasion to do so, from acting 
independently of, or even in opposition to them ? This 
He does, whenever He performs a miracle, properly so 
called. When He held the waters of the Red sea immo- 
vably suspended in air, " to make a way for his ransomed 
to pass through;" — when He made water to gush from 
the rock of flint, on the mere stroke of a rod, that He 
might give drink to His people — His chosen; — when 
He arrested the sun and the moon, in their appointed 
course, and held them back from their goal for a whole 



112 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

day, that He might afford time for His militant hosts to 
vanquish their idolatrous and implacable enemies ; — when 
He surrounded his servants, who, for their fidelity to Him, 
had been cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace, 
heated to unwonted intensity, with His protection, and so 
shielded them that "the smell of fire had not passed 
upon them ; " — when He gave the buoyancy of cork to 
iron, causing it to swim in the Jordan; — and when, after 
curing many diseases, various, most malignant and other- 
wise incurable, by a word or touch, He called back the 
dead of many days, " from that bourne, whence no trav- 
eler returns," unless so called back by the only life-giving 
voice. When He did any one of all these "mighty 
works," He showed, beyond all question, that He had power, 
not only independent of, but over and against what we call 
the laws of nature — viz., over and against the uniform 
order in which He usually governs the universe. 

There is another view of the power of God, the omission 
of which would leave our discussion of the present propo- 
sition radically defective. God has power, as well over 
the spiritual as over the physical universe. His mode of 
governing the former is different from His mode of gov- 
erning the latter, This difference is in accommodation to 
the different natures which are to be governed. The domin- 
ion is, however, equally absolute in both cases. Spirit is 
essentially capable of moral character; and dependent spirits 
are evidently intended for responsibility. To govern spirits, 
therefore, by arbitrary power, as the physical world is gov- 
erned, would be to outrage their moral natures, and to defeat 
the purpose of their responsibility ; for it is a plain — an 
invincible dictate of reason and common sense, that an 
enforced action can have no moral character ; and that 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 113 

there can be no responsibility for doing what is inevitably 
necessary. Hence, the power of God, over spiritual beings, 
is not usually displayed in compelling them to act in a 
prescribed manner, as it is always displayed in the case of 
matter ; but it is exerted in visiting upon those beings the 
consequences of their self-determined course of life and 
action. Or, if, as probably is sometimes the case, their 
action is controlled by Divine power, we feel warranted in 
affirming that, in such cases, responsibility does not attach 
to the acts so controlled. God may exercise influence on 
a spiritual being, — He may excite attention, induce con- 
viction, present motive and impart help, without imposing 
any necessity of acting in the manner indicated, and, conse- 
quently, in perfect consistency with the responsibility of 
the actor. He does all this, and must do all this, that 
man may be saved ; but still, man may, ■ — Alas ! how 
many do ! ■ — " reject the counsel of God against them- 
selves — grieve and quench the Holy Spirit," and so 
" count themselves unworthy of eternal life." But when 
a spiritual being — a responsible dependent creature, shall 
have chosen his way, whether good or bad, God will show 
His sovereign power, by securing to him the proper reward 
of his action. He will lead the feeblest and least confi- 
dent of his faithful followers, through whatever hardships, 
difficulties or dangers may lie in their way, to victory and 
glory — to rest and blessedness: while those who are 
rebellious against His authority, no matter how proud or 
how mighty, shall be overthrown and covered with the 
infamy due to their iniquity. "Angels, who kept not 
their first estate," are, in the sacred Book, " set forth as 
examples — reserved in everlasting chains under darkness,, 

unto the judgment of the great day." 
8 



114: THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

From all this, it appears that God is, indeed, almighty. 
He can clothe Himself in all the powers that belong to 
nature ; or, more properly speaking, those powers are but 
the energies of His own will: — He can suspend or 
withdraw any or all of those powers of nature at His 
pleasure: — He can, when He sees proper, control the 
might of all ranks of spiritual beings, from the feeblest 
inhabitant of earth, to the most potent archangel in 
heaven; — and He can, and assuredly will hold all of 
them, who are responsible beings, to strict accountability, 
for the manner in which they have employed the powers 
with which he endued them, and award to each of them 
the recompense they have severally deserved. In short, 
He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven 
and among the inhabitants of earth — none can stay His 
hand, or, ( without the grossest folly, ) say unto him, 
"what doest Thou?" 

We have, hitherto, considered only what are called the 
natural perfections of the Deity ; and, should we proceed 
no farther, how formidable would be the character of Him 
so presented to us! An unoriginated, independent* and 
unchangeable spirit; eternal and unconfined in His pres- 
ence ; comprehending, in His knowledge, all that is past, 
present and future to us, and possessing almighty power — 
how terrible is such a Being ? What heart can brook the 
contemplation ? Who can feel secure, within the scope of 
such an influence as may be exerted upon us by such a 
Being ? Alas for us, if these tremendous capabilities be 
not directed in their operation by conservative moral 
qualities, co-extensive in their influence and as absolutely 
perfect as they ! Blessed be God, that on this point, there 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 115 

is no room for doubt — the word of God having afforded 
us the most satisfactory information, that, 

4. God is holy. Absolute holiness — such as belongs 
to God — consists in the perfection of moral nature. It is 
equally opposed to the excess of any one moral quality 
over the rest, as to the defective state of any of those 
qualities. It is also an absolute negation of all vicious 
tendency, of all evil bias. Hence, the sacrifice of good- 
ness to the advancement of the interests of justice, or a 
disregard of the claims of justice to satisfy the yearnings 
of goodness, would be inconsistent with holiness, not less 
than direct injustice or cruelty. Holiness is utterly 
inconsistent with the sacrifice of truth, for the sake of 
expediency, or to accommodate the caprices of passion. 
Holiness is moral purity. Not only are wicked actions 
and wicked purposes incongruous to it, but even wicked 
inclinations and tendencies, no matter how feeble, nor how 
steadily, resolutely or successfully resisted, are incompati- 
ble with absolute holiness— such as that which the sacred 
Scriptures ascribe to God. That this holiness belongs to 
God, would seem to be, in the highest degree, probable, 
when it is considered that His existence, His action and 
His enjoyment are wholly independent of every other 
being in existence. What bias to evil can be supposed 
to exist in such a nature as His ? What motive could be 
presented, which would incline such a being as He is, in 
the slightest degree, from the exactest rectitude ? Surely 
none can be imagined I But not to insist on the reasona- 
bleness of the proposition further, our present purpose will 
be amply accomplished, by showing that the holy Scrip- 
tures ascribe holiness to God, as the sum of His moral 
character. It would seem almost needless to cite particu- 



116 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

lar passages, from Holy Writ, to this effect ; as, in every 
part of the sacred volume, such passages abound, in vastly 
varied forms of expression, and with intensively emphatic 
signification. Under the Law, the requirement, on the 
peculiar people of God, to be holy, is enforced, as by the 
most powerful of all inducements, by the fact of the 
holiness of God — "Be ye holy; for I, the Lord your 
God am holy." When the profane curiosity of the har- 
vest-men of Beth-shemesh, who looked into the Ark of 
the Covenant, just then miraculously recovered from the 
Philistines, had been severely punished by the death of 
many persons, the survivors, penetrated with awe and 
terror, exclaimed, " Who is able to stand before this holy 
Lord God? " Among the attributes of God, so sublimely 
celebrated, by the sweet Psalmist of Israel, none has more 
prominence, none excites more poetical ardor or more 
fervent piety, in his enraptured bosom, than holiness — 
the holiness of God. He considers the holiness of God a 
sufficient reason for honoring and worshiping Him — 
" Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool ; 
for He is holy." "Let them praise Thy great and 
terrible name ; for it is holy." He also deems the 
holiness of God matter of thanksgiving to His people — 
"Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at 
the remembrance of His holiness." 

Holiness is ascribed to God not only by saints under 
the Law, but, Christians, under the clearer light of the 
Gospel, reiterate the same representation, in various and 
emphatic forms of expression — " Be ye therefore perfect, 
even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect." 
Moral perfection and absolute holiness are identical In 
the model prayer, taught by the Saviour to His disciples, 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 117 

the holiness of God is directed to be distinctly recognized : 

" Our Father, which art in heaven ! Hallowed be thy 

name!" Christians are urged by St. Peter, to be holy, 

because God is holy — "As He, which hath called you is 

holy, so be ye holy." Finally, the celestial spirits, which 

dwell in the presence of God, are incessant in proclaiming 

the holiness of God. As heard by Isaiah and St. John, 

these blessed spirits occupy themselves perpetually in 

crying to one another, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of 

hosts!"— "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty!" 

Thus is the holiness of God witnessed and celebrated by 

saints of both the Levitical and the Christian dispensations, 

and by the blessed in heaven. And surely, a matter, so 

reasonable in itself, and attested by so many and such 

unexceptionable witnesses, deserves to be universally and 

implicitly credited by all rational beings. 

5. God is a God of truth. One of the sacred writers 

solemnly affirms that it is "impossible for God to lie;" 

and, so well established does he esteem this fact, that he 

considers it a sufficient warrant for " strong consolation," 

to those, who, fleeing from the blandishments of a deluding 

world, have laid "hold on the hope set before them." 

We shall specify the truthfulness of God in a few par- 
ticulars: and, 

(1.) God is truthful, in the revelation of Himself, which 
He has made to His creatures, whether by His works or 
by His word. Men may misconstrue that revelation, as 
they may misread any communication made to them, 
from no matter what source and on any subject. Inat- 
tention, haste, prejudice or aversion to the import of the 
communication, may betray them into error, But, the 
simple-hearted, earnest and diligent investigator will not 



118 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

materially err. Indeed, God's representation of Himself 
is so plain, and has such an air of fitness and probability, 
that the wonder is how any rational being can question its 
truth. All, of that revelation, which is level to the 
capacity of the human mind, compels the acquiescence of 
all who will be at the pains to understand it, and who do 
not bring to the investigation of it strong preconceived 
opinions, or a pride of philosophy, which scorns to receive, 
as truth, any doctrine which has not been discovered by 
its own research. Much, that regards the nature and 
perfections of God, must, in the nature of things, be vastly 
above the level of the human intellect — much, even of 
what concerns the meanest of His works, is unquestionably 
so. But, in all that God has revealed of Himself, when 
properly understood, there is nothing contrary to human 
reason. That God is everywhere present, for instance, 
is an inscrutable mystery to the human mind ; and, yet 
there is nothing in this proposition that revolts the human 
understanding. So of many other facts, in regard to the 
Divine existence and character — they may transcend 
immeasurably the line of our limited comprehension; 
but they do not contradict the reason with which we are 
endued. 

(2.) God is truthful, in the revelation which He has 
made to man of His will, in regard to Himself. By that, 
we mean that, what God has revealed as His will, is really 
His will. There is no mental reservation, in this revela- 
tion — no secret will, inconsistent with that revelation 
and lying back of it, according to which God will regulate 
His dealings with His creatures. Is there not impiety 
and even blasphemy in imputing to the Deity a secret 
and invincible will, opposed to, or inconsistent with what 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 119 

He has revealed as His will ? What, then, shall we say 
of that teaching, which represents God as having, in the 
secret counsels of His own bosom, determined that a large 
portion of mankind shall not be saved, when, in His 
revelation, He has declared that He " will have all men to 
be saved ? " That he does not will that all men shall be 
unconditionally saved, the whole tenor of Divine revelation 
clearly shows. Indeed, we have good reason to question 
that He has willed the unconditional salvation of one adult 
individual of the human race ; but, if He has not willed 
that all men shall have ample ability to be saved, then is 
His revelation illusory and Jesuitical, and He is not a 
God of truth. No man has this ability of nature ; and, 
hence, if the revelation in question present the truth, it 
guarantees grace, whereby salvation may be secured. The 
communication of this grace, to all men, is distinctly 
testified to by St. Paul — "The grace of God, which 
bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men." 

(3.) God is a God of truth, in His revelation of 
promises to them who obey, and of threatenings to those 
who disobey Him. These promises and threatenings are 
made, not to individuals abstractly considered, but to all 
who sustain the character to which they respectively 
apply. And, consequently, the wicked man, who is, to- 
day, threatened with eternal death, may repent, accept the 
Saviour by faith, and so be justified and changed in heart, 
and may to-morrow, be a subject of the "great and 
precious promises " of the Gospel. And, again, those to 
whom, yesterday, God had promised the certainty of life 
eternal, having u turned away from their righteousness and 
committed iniquity," are to-day objects of the terrible 
denunciations of death eternal, for their apostasy and 



120 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

iniquity. And, indeed, all the promises and all the 
threatenings, having reference to our relation to God and 
to our retributive destiny, are predicated of the character 
in which we appear before God, and not of any abstract, or, 
as it is sometimes designated, sovereign purpose of God 
towards us personally. Were it otherwise, there would be 
no candor, no sincerity, no truth in the promises or 
threatenings, which God has revealed to man — no con- 
gruity between those promises and threatenings, and the 
facts, in regard to man's condition and destiny, to which 
they relate. The threatening that the sinner shall abide 
under the wrath of God, and eternally die for his sin, will 
ever be found true to the letter ; and yet, he, who is now 
a sinner, may, by coming to the remedial terms of the 
Gospel, be released from this intolerable incumbrance, and 
may escape eternal death: while he, who is promised the 
light of God's countenance in time, and eternal life hereaf- 
ter, may, by "making shipwreck of faith and a good 
conscience," incur the terrible threat of Divine wrath, in 
this life, and of swift and eternal destruction hereafter. 
We have many instances, recorded in the sacred Scrip- 
tures, of both promises and threatenings, in which no 
condition was expressed ; which, nevertheless, are clearly 
shown to have been conditional. Such was the promise, 
to a progenitor of Eli, of the perpetuity of the priesthood 
in his family : — such the promise to David, of the per- 
petual regal dignity of his sons ; — and such the threat- 
ening, against Nineveh, denounced by the ministry of 
Jonah. These, and many others of like kind, lead us 
to believe that all the promises of reward, and all the 
threatenings of punishment, directed to accountable beings, 
are admonitory, as well as conditional — intended to incite 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 121 

the good to fidelity, and to lead the sinner to repentance. 
At all events, both promises and threatenings are true, in 
the sense in which they were intended, and, we have no 
doubt, in the sense in which they were calculated to be 
understood by those to whom they were primarily ad- 
dressed. Thus much will ever be certain, — God will be 
true, though every man should be a liar. 

6. God is just Justice in God, is equity or conformity 
to that which is right, towards all upon whom He exerts 
an influence. In whatever way He operates upon the 
condition or fate of His creatures, right is the rule of His 
operation. Abraham had a correct view of the Divine 
character, when he confidently remonstrated with God, on 
the wrong of destroying the righteous with the wicked, 
and triumphantly closed the remonstrance, with the 
demonstrative interrogatory — "shall not the Judge of all 
the earth do right ? " We shall consider the justice of 
God, in His various relations to His creatures, and espe- 
cially man ; and, 

(1.) God is just as a Creator. He had an unques- 
tionable right to create all the various classes of creatures, 
from the archangel, that stands in His presence, to the 
animalcule, confined to a space so small that it eludes the 
sharpest sight of man. None of these classes are entitled, 
in any tone of complaint, to ask of God, " Why hast Thou 
made us thus ? ' But, every one must feel that, if he 
had created any being, or race of beings, sinful, or with a 
fatal necessity of becoming sinful; or, if He had created 
any being to suffer pain, or with the inevitable necessity 
of pursuing a course that would result in pain, He would 
have perpetrated, towards such beings, the most cruel 
injustice. He had an undoubted right to create or not 



122 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

create any of all that He has made ; but, He could, by 
no possibility, have had a right to create any of them to 
be the victims of pain and suffering, or the slaves of 
wicked passions and vicious propensities, which lead 
directly and certainly to woe. Accordingly, when He 
had finished the creation of the heavens and the earth, 
and of all their various tribes of inhabitants, we hear Him 
pronouncing the whole of His great work " very good." 
This He could not have done, if sin, and sorrow, and 
death had been incident to the creatures He had made, 
either directly, or by the necessary result of the tenden- 
cies He had given them, or of the circumstances in which 
He had placed them. These, then, did not exist in the 
beautiful, orderly and happy worlds, upon which the 
Creator pronounced this emphatic eulogium. 

(2.) God is just, in His government of His creatures. 
But, though " justice and judgment are the habitation of 
His throne ; " yet, " clouds and darkness are round about 
Him : " so, that it is often not a little difficult for man, 
imperfect as is his knowledge of all the bearings of many 
of the cases which come under his observation, to reconcile 
the Divine administration, in regard to them, with justice. 
This difficulty, we suppose, arises chiefly from the peculiar 
situation of the world, in which we witness that admin- 
istration. Sin has occasioned that peculiarity. The 
condition of the world must be regarded, in the first 
place, as penal Evil is in the world, as the punish- 
ment — perhaps as the natural consequence of sin. In 
the second place, we must take into account the fact that 
there is going on in the world, an earnest endeavor for 
the salvation of the sinner from the consequences of his 
sins, both moral and penal. Both these circumstances 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 123 

exert a marked influence upon the character of the 
Divine administration. Add to this, that the Divine 
government contemplates future compensation, whether 
for good or for ill, to all the parties affected by its 
administration in this world. The chief difficult}^ though 
by no means the only one, in this matter, regards the 
subjection of unsinning infants, and of the inferior classes 
of sentient beings, to suffering and death. The latter, 
though created for the service of man, were endued with 
capacities for the enjoyment of existence, in endlessly 
varied measures. But, it would seem that their depen- 
dence upon man was such, that he could not render 
himself unhappy, nor expose himself to death, without 
involving them in the same evils. On the whole, how- 
ever, enjoyment predominates in the existence of inferior 
sentient beings; whether we suppose their existence 
limited to the present life, or, with many wise and good 
men, find, in the holy Scriptures, a guarantee of immor- 
tality to them, in greatly improved circumstances. Without 
anxieties in regard to future want, without foresight of 
impending danger, without guilt or apprehension of pun- 
ishment in a future state, they graze or gorge, as their 
appetites determine ; and enjoy the good of the present, 
without setting over against it the evil of days to come ; 
and, on the supposition that this life is their only portion, 
they have so much more of enjoyment than of suffering 
here, with no future evil in prospect, that existence is, on 
the whole, a good, and their liabilities to its sufferings no 
evidence of injustice on the part of Him, by whom they 
were placed in such dependence on man, as that they are 
involved in partial and temporary sufferings by his rebel- 
lion against his Creator and Sovereign. But, allowing 



124 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

that an immortality, of undisturbed enjoyment suited to 
and commensurate with their capacities, is secured to 
them, in the ample scope of man's redemption by Jesus 
Christ, what a blessing is their being to them, notwith- 
standing the partial and short-lived evils, which their 
dependence on man entails on them in this life. 

The evils to which man himself is subject, were no part 
of his original allotment. They are the punitive — per- 
haps the natural consequences of his violation of the order 
established by his Creator. Is it not probable that, in 
the constitution given to the world by the Creator, it was 
provided that derangement in moral order should be 
followed by disorder in the physical condition of the 
world? Be this as it may, such disorder did follow upon 
the original transgression of the Divine law. All "the 
ills that flesh is heir to ' flow, as streams, from that 
poisonous fountain. There is not an anxious care, which 
harrows up the soul — not a disappointment, which crushes 
the buoyancy of the spirit — not a sorrow, that bleeds the 
heart and enervates the mind — not a pang, that thrills 
the nerves — not one of these, nor the other innumerable 
evils, which afflict life or bring it to a close, but is a "fruit 
of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death 
into the world, and all our woe." This, it may be said, is 
plainly enough consistent with the justice of the Divine 
administration, so far as regards the actual transgressors 
themselves; but, that their posterity should, for their 
fault, be subject to moral corruption and suffering, and 
liable to death, are very different matters, and their 
consistency with the justice of the Divine government is 
by no means so obvious. But let it be remembered, that 
the first sinful pair, if permitted at all to propagate a 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 125 

posterity, must, according to the established laws of 
nature, propagate their own kind, as well with regard to its 
imperfections and its liabilities, as in regard to its capabili- 
ties and its privileges. Either, then, the human race 
must not be propagated ; or, it must partake of the moral 
disorder, subjection to disease and liability to death, which 
the first pair had brought upon themselves. The question 
in equity, therefore, which w r as to be determined, was, 
whether an innumerable posterity should be propagated, 
by the transgressors, subject to moral disorder, and 
disease, and liable to death, but free from the legal conse- 
quences of the first transgression, and secured in the 
privilege of obtaining a renovation of moral nature, a 
disciplinary training and meetness for, and, at last, the 
enjoyment of an immortality of blessedness, in the 
kingdom of God ; or, by precluding to them these glorious 
possibilities, they should be secured from the temporal 
suffering and temporal death, incident to an actual exist- 
ence derived from the rebellious pair, by their being 
withheld from that existence ? And who can hesitate to 
answer in favor of that administration which permitted the 
propagation of the human race, subject to the inevitable 
ills of life, but secured in the possibility of attaining to 
moral rectitude and of securing an eternal inheritance in 
bliss ? With respect to those who die in infancy, there is 
no contingency in the matter of their salvation. "The 
free gift has come upon them, unto justification of life," 
through " the righteousness of one," Jesus Christ; and 
consequently, as they have not personally forfeited their 
rights in Christ, their salvation is certain. Who can 
doubt the justice of permitting them thus to come, 
through brief sufferings, to eternal happiness, rather than 



126 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

of preventing their short-lived sufferings, by withholding 
them from actual existence, and, consequently, from 
eternal felicity? The existence of evil in the lot of man 
is, therefore, no evidence of injustice in God as our 
Creator, or our Sovereign. Nay, it is a standing and 
striking memorial of His rigid adherence to justice ; since, 
though " He is loving to every man," He punishes him 
for his dereliction from duty. If, however, this dereliction 
had proceeded from any invincible tendency in the nature 
of man — any irresistible force in the circumstances 
surrounding him, or in the motives operating upon him — 
any controlling power in the sovereign purposes of God, 
then these evils would argue injustice in the Creator and 
Sovereign, who gave him this invincible tendency, who 
placed him in these irresistibly forcible circumstances, 
exposed him to the operation of these irresistible motives 
or subjected him to the power of these controlling purposes 
of God — thus forcing him into transgression — and then 
punishing him, with these evils, for such transgression. 
We feel sure that unbiased reason and unsophisticated 
common-sense will sustain this assertion, and equally sure 
that it is in accordance with both the letter and the spirit 
of the sacred Scriptures. 

(3.) God was just, in his redemption of man by Jesus 
Christ. Man, being the creature of God, and, as such, 
under the most sacred obligations to render to Him 
devoted obedience, rebelled against Him. For this, the 
Divine law had a claim upon man, which extended to his 
entire capacity to suffer, during the whole of his existence. 
This claim, in order to the justice of the Divine adminis- 
tration, must be fully met by man ; unless an equivalent 
for his so suffering should be offered on his behalf, and 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 127 

w 

be accepted by the Executive of the law. Such an 
equivalent could be found alone in the vicarious sufferings 
and death of Jesus Christ ; who, uniting in Himself the 
perfect natures of Divinity and humanity, had ample 
merit to satisfy the claims of the law against man ; as 
well as power to suffer in conformity to the terms of that 
claim. Only by the "offering of Himself once, for all " 
mankind, could the claim of the law upon man be met 
and justice satisfied if man should escape the penalty 
incurred by his transgression. This offering of Himself, 
Jesus Christ did graciously make ; and, as " in Him dwelt 
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," and "as He gave 
Himself a ransom for" man, there was no injustice in 
accepting the substitution of His meritorious suffering 
and death for the eternal suffering of the sinner. The 
effects of this righteous substitution are that the guilt of 
the first transgression is expiated, that "God may be just, 
and the justifier " of actual transgressors, who secure an 
interest in the atonement made by Jesus Christ, by 
" believing on Him," and that such transgressors, polluted 
though they be, by sin, may be prepared for, and admitted 
to a participation "with the saints in light," in the 
" inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not 
away." 

(4.) God will be just, in the awards of the final judg- 
ment — the judgment of the great day. In this is 
implied not merely the absence of all intentional wrong 
and all negligence of right, on the part of the Judge, in 
making the decisions, on which those awards shall be 
rendered, but such a knowledge of all the facts, in every 
case adjudicated, as shall preclude the possibility of error. 
The capabilities and opportunities of every party judged, 



128 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

will be exactly appreciated, and no more will be required 
of any one than he had ability to perform, as well as the 
means of knowing that it was his duty to perform it. All 
this is strikingly illustrated by the parable of the Talents. 
Each recipient received talents, or a talent, according to 
his proper ability ; and all were judged, and rewarded or 
punished according to the manner in which they had used 
the gifts bestowed upon them respectively. He whose 
ability would have been overtasked by two talents, re- 
ceived but one : he who could profitably use only two, 
received but two; and he that could manage five to 
advantage, received five: while the man who received 
but one talent, was required to account for the use of that 
one only ; and they, who had respectively received two 
and five, were required to account for the use, not of one 
talent merely, but of the number of talents they had each 
received. Thus will every one's performance be estimated, 
by the righteous Judge, " according to that which he hath 
received, and not according to that which he hath not 
received." As there will be a just appreciation of every 
man's ability and opportunity, so there will be also a 
perfect knowledge of every act, determining his character, 
and of every motive by which such action was induced. 
" God will reward every man," not according to his pre- 
tensions, but " according to his works ; ' and among these 
works, will be reckoned those " secret things," which He 
will bring to light, " whether they were good, or whether 
they were evil." 

7. God is good. Goodness is a disposition to confer 
benefits on subjects who are capable of enjoyment. Good- 
ness stands out so prominently, in the revealed character 
of God, that the English name, by which He is known 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 129 

signifies the good Being; for such, in the Anglo-Saxon 
language, is the import of the word God. Let it be 
carefully remembered, however, that goodness, in the 
character of the Infinitely Perfect One, is by no means 
disproportioned to His other perfections. He is not good 
at the expense of His wisdom, His truth, His justice, or 
His holiness. This attribute, however, stands out, before 
the eyes of mankind, more distinctly than His other 
attributes; because the present is, to them, the season 
of probation, and not of retribution. But, when this 
latter season shall arrive, then His other attributes will 
be manifested, with equal distinctness and prominence. 
Then will He be seen in His "whole round of rays 
complete." But our present concern is with His good- 
ness; and, 

(1.) We observe that the goodness of God was glo- 
riously manifested in creation. No selfish motive could 
have prompted Him in creation. Absolutely indepen- 
dent, infinitely perfect, and therefore, infinitely happy, 
God could have contemplated no personal advantage, from 
the creation of any being or variety of beings, no matter 
what their rank or their character. In the work of 
creation, then, He must have had in view the condition 
and fate of the creatures He was about to make. So far 
as we have been able to discern, inert and unsentient 
nature, in all its vast capabilities, was designed for the 
use and enjoyment of the various tribes and ranks of 
sentient and intellectual beings, with which the world was 
peopled ; and, those sentient and intellectual beings were 
endued with capacities for the enjoyment of the accommo- 
dation so provided. True : much of evil and discomfort 
arises from the mal-appropriations. which are often made, 
9 



130 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

of the means provided for the enjoyment of sentient and 
intellectual beings; — either in kind or degree, nature is 
turned aside from the purpose, which it was intended and 
calculated to accomplish; and every such perversion 
inevitably leads to more or less discomfort. The key-note 
of universal harmony, which primarily prevailed, was lost, 
when the moral order, established by the Creator, was 
broken up by the rebellion of man. Still there are fre- 
quently heard tones and even symphonies, from chords not 
wholly broken, which indicate how unutterably delightful 
and harmonious was the music, when the instrument was 
not yet rendered discordant, by the rude shock of man's 
transgression. For aught we can tell, the functions of 
life might have been as healthfully and as vigorously per- 
formed, as they now are, if every such function were 
attended by a pang as severe as ever neuralgia inflicted. 
On the contrary, as a general rule, which indicates the 
original constitution of animal nature, these functions 
afford so much pleasure, that, so far as they are voluntarily 
performed, we are apt to lose sight of the end contem- 
plated, in the process itself. We rarely think of the 
necessity of nutrition, to the preservation of life, in making 
provision for that object, or in the regularity and punc- 
tuality with which we use that provision — the pleasure 
we find in the process, is motive sufficient to secure that 
punctuality and regularity. How much goodness is seen, 
in an arrangement which thus combines the safety and 
the enjoyment of animal life. Again: light and sound are 
vastly important to the purposes of life. Could not the 
Creator, if He had so pleased, have so spread the land- 
scape around us, and so filled up the firmament above us, 
that -every prospect would have been a vision of horror, 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 131 

and every sensation excited by it an agony ? Yet, with 
what beauty, with what grandeur and with what sublimity 
has He rilled up the circle of our vision, that they might 
minister to the pleasure of His creatures ! Could he not 
have caused the vibrations of the air to give forth only 
sounds of discord : so that the sighing of the breeze should 
have been as the shriek of anguish; the rustle of the forest- 
leaf, as the grating of unpolished hinges; and the human 
voice in its most endearing accents, as a mistuned instru- 
ment, — braying horrible discord ? How different the 
reality ! Sounds and sights there are, it is admitted, 
calculated to excite disquiet, disgust, and loathing, and to 
harrow up the soul of the hearer and beholder ; but they 
are exceptions — rare exceptions to the rule, which matches 
to the senses of hearing and sight, sounds and objects 
which minister pleasure. Like observations would hold 
good, in regard to all our various relations to the order of 
things, established in the world, which has been assigned 
to animal existence. Bat we may not farther expatiate in 
the vast field that is here spread out before us. Suffice 
it to say, that, notwithstanding the many and great calami- 
ties, which man's rebellion has brought upon the world, 
of which the Creator constituted him the head, there is 
in the main such an adaptation of means to the various 
capacities of sentient and intellectual beings for enjoy- 
ment, that we still have ample evidence of the goodness 
of God in creation. 

(2.) God was good in the redemption of man by Jesus 
Christ. Goodness, in this manifestation, takes the form of 
mercy ; as it contemplates the alleviation of distress, in the 
case of a sufferer who merits no kindness. Mercy is bat a 
modification of goodness, and could never have been exer- 



132 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

cised, if sin and sorrow had not furnished an occasion for its 
exhibition. The condition of man, as a consequence of 
his sin, was such that he could neither extricate himself nor 
be delivered by any other creature-interposition, from guilt, 
from misery and from eternal ruin. But, God was so good 
to him — " so loved him," that He gave His only begotten 
Son, "that he might die, the Just for the unjust;" and, in 
so dying, that He might "bear the sins" of mankind, "in 
His own body upon the tree," and thus ".put away sin, 
by the sacrifice of Himself." Thus was the original guilt 
of man expiated ; while provision was made for the pro- 
pagation, renovation, and eternal salvation of the human 
race. This, all things considered, is an exhibition of the 
Divine goodness, altogether unparalleled, and which could 
not have been imagined even possible, had it not been 
revealed, as a most glorious reality. For this, every child 
of man should devote himself to the service of God. Grati- 
tude should impel them all to "glorify God in their 
bodies and in their spirits which are His." 

(3.) God is good, in carrying into effect the plan of 
human salvation, provided for in the redemption by Jesus 
Christ. In doing this, He has restrained himself to no 
particular mode of operation, as some would have us 
believe. Though His most indulgent plan is that upon 
which He operates by means of His written word, His 
preached gospel and His instituted ordinances, in subor- 
dination to the influences of His Holy Spirit \ yet, in the 
absence of these means, He can and does "bring men out 
of darkness, into his marvelous light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God ;" so that "in every nation, he that 
feareth Him and worketh righteousness, is accepted of 
Him." We shall, however, confine ourselves to that mode 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 133 

of operation, in which, as prevailing among us, we are 
specially concerned; and we remark that his goodness, 
in this mode of operation, is evinced in the clear, all- 
embracing information, concerning what belongs to our 
eternal salvation, which He has furnished to us in the 
Holy Scriptures ; in the honest and startling warnings, 
which are employed therein, to arouse and alarm the care- 
less in sin, and to check the headlong and reckless in 
their pernicious ways ; in the encouraging promises, by 
which penitent seekers of salvation are sustained in their 
weakness, emboldened in their apprehension, rendered 
confident in their despondency, and comforted in their 
godly sorrow — by which the tempted are assured of succor 
and deliverance, and by which the dying are enabled to 
triumph in the last conflict. In the peculiar efficiency of 
this sacred word, when it is preached, in " power and de- 
monstration of the Spirit" by men of like passions with 
ourselves— when, coming warm from the believing, loving 
heart of a preacher, called, qualified and sent of God, this 
" word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than 
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asun- 
der of the soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart." In the impulse, aid, encourage- 
ment and consolation, resulting from attendance on the 
simple, but impressive ordinances of Divine appointment ; 
and, especially, in the timely, impressive and efficient 
influences of the Holy Ghost ; which, if yielded to will 
result in the enlightenment of the understanding, the 
quickening and purification of the conscience, faith in 
Christ, justification before God, the renovation of the 
heart, the sanctification of the Spirit, perseverance to the 
end, and eternal life. In every stage, in the process of 



134 THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

our salvation, the goodness of God is seen, in "His 
patience, forbearance and long-suffering" — in His con- 
tinuing to operate for the salvation of man, while His word 
is unheeded, His ordinances neglected and His Spirit 
grieved; or, while there is so much of hesitation, of 
defalcation and back-sliding as would discourage any other 
kindness and exhaust any other patience than those of 
Him, whose " merciful kindness" towards us is great, and 
who pitieth us, as a father pitieth his children. 

(4.) Finally, the goodness of God will be abundantly 
manifested, in the ample provision He has made, for the 
eternal felicity of His servants, in their future state of 
existence. To prepare them fully for that felicity, their 
bodies, long the prisoners of the grave, shall be raised to 
immortality, and reunited to their spirits ; and then, " an 
abundant entrance shall be ministered unto them, into the 
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ." Of the felicity there to be enjoyed, we can say 
but little ; but we are authorized by the " sure word of 
prophecy" to affirm, 

(1.) That there will be no evil there. There Solomon's 
boast will be fully borne out. " There will be no adversary 
nor evil occurrent." " The wicked shall cease from troub- 
ling." " All tears are wiped from the eyes" of those, who 
have been " taken away from the evil to come." " They 
shall hunger no more ; neither shall they thirst any more." 
By them, 

" Sickness and sorrow, pain and death r 
Are felt and feared no more." 

(2.) Those admitted to that glorious inheritance, shall 
be associated, in the enjoyment of it, with all the good 
of all ages, of all nations and, probably, of all worlds. 



THE EXISTENCE AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 135 

Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and saints, 
who have glorified the Saviour on the earth, shall " meet 
together with the Lord ; and, before His presence, shall 
" shine as stars, and as the firmament forever and ever," 
and those who have once entered into this delightful asso- 
ciation shall never " go out." Neither alienation of 
friendship, nor removal to distant regions, nor death shall 
ever break the social circle of the saved in heaven, nor 
mar the happiness of their intercourse. 

(3.) Besides and above all, they shall be in the 
presence of God — the Triune God, their Creator, their 
Redeemer, their Sanctifier and, in all, their bounteous 
Benefactor. In His presence, in the light of His counte- 
nance and in the rapt contemplation of his infinite 
perfections, more than in all else, will they find unutterable, 
uncloying, eternal felicity. The Saviour's crowning kind- 
ness to His disciples was an assurance to them that, " in 
his Father's house were many mansions" — that He was 
going to "prepare a place for them" — that "He would 
come again, and receive them to himself," and that, " where 
He was, there they, His servants, should be also." This 
various and ample provision, for the future and eternal 
happiness of His faithful servants, is an overwhelming 
instance of the goodness of God. And, with this, we close 
our feeble endeavor to bring before you the existence, the 
nature and the character of God — praying earnestly that, 
in "knowing Him, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent," 
we all may have " eternal life !" Amen ! 



DISCOURSE III. 

TRINITY IN UNITY IN THE GODHEAD. 

" There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the 
Holy Ghost j and these three are one." — 1 John v, 7. 

We are aware that the genuineness of this verse has been 
seriously questioned, not only by opposers of the doctrine 
which it is generally understood to support, but also by 
some of the firmest advocates of that doctrine — among 
the rest, by Dr. A. Clarke, who fairly gives it up, as inde- 
fensible. On the other hand, many critics of great learn- 
ing and ability, hold that its genuineness is sufficiently 
established. It becomes us to be very modest, in ex- 
pressing an opinion, in a matter in dispute among men of 
such vast learning and research ; but, we must say that, 
to us, the arguments /or, appear to outweigh those against, 
the genuineness of this verse. 

Nevertheless, as the opposition to its genuineness is 
most respectable, we could not venture the support of an 
important doctrine upon its authority. Hence, in selecting 
this verse for our text, we have not done so because we 
regard it as establishing the doctrine we intend to main- 
tain, but only because it brings this doctrine, which is 
taught with equal clearness, though not with equal com- 
pactness, in other and undisputed portions of the sacred 
Scriptures, within the compass of a few words. Indeed, we 
consider the doctrine, of the Trinity in Unity, in no degree 
dependent on this verse, for the authority of its claims on 
our acceptance of it — it being amply established by very 

136 



TEINITY IN UNITY. 137 

many portions of Scripture, to the genuineness of which 
no exception has been taken by even the most determined 
in their hostility to the doctrine in question. 

We shall proceed to state simply what we understand 
to be the import of the doctrines of our text. And we 
understand, 

I. That the Persons, called in the New Testament, The 
Father, the Son, or the Word, and the Holy Ghost, or the 
Holy Spirit, are distinct Persons : . 

II. That each of these Persons, considered distribu- 
tively, is very and true God : 

III. That there is but one true and living God ; and, 

IV. That these three Persons bear unanimous testimony 
to salvation by Christ. 

Were we required to answer the question, " How can 
these things be ? " or to give the rationale of this mode of 
existence, we should have to plead utter incapacity for the 
task. We could as easily explain that other important truth 
in regard to the Divine existence — That He exists without 
any producing cause ! But, though we may not explore 
the manner of this existence, so as to understand how it 
is, what it is, we may, as we think, presume to say that the 
Trinity, of the Divine nature, is not predicated of the same 
aspect of that nature of which the Unit?/ is predicated. 
In other words, God is not One, in the same respect in 
which He is Three, The doctrine, of the Trinity in Unity, 
if it be, as we believe it is, a glorious truth, is purely a 
doctrine of Revelation. It has no proper type in nature. 
It cannot be reasoned out, by philosophy, from any data 
found in the whole of creation. To Revelation, then, and 
to Revelation alone, we look for the support of this doc- 
trine. Supported by that, we shall hold it to be worthy 



138 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

of all acceptance, and shall calmly disregard the reason- 
ings of "philosophy falsely so called:" which, deriving 
its premises from incompetent and irrelevant sources, 
concludes against this doctrine, as not answerable to its 
psychological systems of law, order, or fitness. Against a 
clear dictum of Revelation, we hold all human wisdom to 
be puling folly — all reasoning to be false, either in its 
premises, its conduct of the argument, or its conclusion. 

By Revelation, we shall now attempt the proof of our 
first proposition: viz. — 

I. That the Persons, called, in the New Testament, the 
Father, the Son, or the Word, and the Holy Ghost, or the 
Holy Spirit, are distinct Persons ; and, 

1. The first Scripture we shall adduce, in support of 
this proposition, is Matt, iii, 16, 17: "And Jesus, when 
He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water ; 
and lo ! the heavens were opened unto Him ; and He saw 
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting 
upon Him ; and lo ! a voice from heaven, saying, ' This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' " Here we 
have three persons, clearly distinguished one from another, 
existing at the same time — Jesus Christ, declared, by a 
voice from heaven, to be the beloved Son of the celestial 
Speaker : — the Spirit of God, who, descending from the 
opened heavens, in the likeness of a dove, alighted upon 
Jesus ; and the heavenly Speaker, who, by claiming Jesus 
for His Son, announces Himself as the Father. The most 
licentious criticism cannot, by any possibility, invent a 
plausible interpretation of this passage which does not 
recognize the distinct personality of the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. They act, and act upon each other, 
as distinctly as three independent beings could do ; and, 



TKINITY IN UNITY. 139 

though we do not consider this a proof of distinct essence, it 
certainty does conclusively prove distinct personality, if 
any thing can prove such personality in any case. 

2. Our second proof is found in the ordinance of Bap- 
tism, Matt, xxviii, 19: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Could there be a more 
distinct recognition of personality, on the part of each of 
these sacred persons, than is in this formula ? Can it be 
supposed that Christians are directed to be baptized into 
names that merely signify qualities, or into one Being, and 
two of His attributes or manifestations, while the terms 
employed clearly indicate personality, and indicate it in 
regard to the two last equally as to the first ? The sup- 
position is absurd. The attributes of a person may present 
strong inducements to affection, devotion or consecration 
to the person to whom they belong; but certainly it would 
require madness for any person to consecrate himself, or 
to submit to be consecrated, to the attributes themselves. 
If, then, there be any rational signification in the formula 
of baptism, the three names, in, or into, which the apostles 
and their successors were directed to baptize their dis- 
ciples, stand for three Persons, who are the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost 

4. Our third proof is taken from John xiv, 26: "The 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will 
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring 
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
unto you." Here, we have the Holy Ghost, sent hy the 
Fathek, in the name of the Son; and, as appears from verse 
16, sent in answer to the prayer of the Son. None but a 
person could hear and answer prayer, or could be the 



140 TRINITY AND UNITY. 

sender of a messenger or agent, on a mission to a third 
party: — none but a person could solicit the sending of 
such a messenger or agent, or could sustain the relation 
of principal, in whose name or behalf such messenger or 
agent was sent; — and only a person could be a Comforter ', 
a remembrancer, taking the things, belonging to His prin- 
cipal in the transaction, and showing them to the party to 
which He had been sent. Here, then, we have again the 
recognition of the distinct personality of each of these three 
Persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

4. The fourth proof of our proposition, which we shall 
bring forward, is the well known benediction of St. Paul to 
the Corinthian Church, found in 2 Cor. xiii, 14, and which 
has been almost universally adopted, by ministers of the 
Gospel, as the form in which they pronounce a parting 
blessing upon their congregations — "The grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of 
the Holy Ghost, be with you all," It is true, that the 
usual New Testament distinctive denominations are not 
here given to two of the Persons, whose blessing is 
invoked ; but, then, it is so common throughout the New 
Testament, to qualify Jesus Christ as the Son — the Son 
of God, that, with respect to him, no cavil can be appre- 
hended ; and as the Person, so often in the New Testament 
styled the Father, is, by common consent, admitted to be 
God, it will, we presume, be disputed by no one that the 
Father is intended, by the cognate term, God, in this bene- 
diction. If the apostle understood the matter, and if he 
was sincere, in his purpose of leading his disciples in the 
way of truth, are not three persons recognized distinctly 
in this benediction? Could these persons have been more 
accurately discriminated, one from another, or more clearly 



TRINITY AND UNITY. 141 

qualified, as persons, than they are ? Would it not be 
utterly absurd to commend a Church to the grace of aught 
else but a person : - — to the love of aught else but a person : 
— to the communion of aught but a person ? And would 
it not be equally absurd, in commending the Church to the 
grace, love and communion of one person, under three sev- 
eral manifestations, to discriminate those manifestations in 
such a manner as to represent them as distinct personalities, 
and that, too, without any, the slightest, intimation that 
three manifestations of the same person were intended ? 
We conclude, then, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost are recognized, as three distinct Persons, in this 
apostolic benediction. 

We deem it superfluous to adduce any more proofs of 
the truth of our first proposition. Were it considered 
necessary, nothing would be easier than to bring forward 
a vast amount of clear, pertinent, and weighty evidence 
in its support. But we are satisfied that enough has been 
produced, to put the truth of the proposition beyond ques- 
tion, in the mind of any candid and rational inquirer. We 
shall therefore proceed to show, 

II. That each of these Persons, considered distribute ely, 

is VERY AND TRUE GoD. 

1. That the Person, who, in the New Testament, is 
denominated the Father, is very and true God, will scarcely 
be denied by any one, who admits the Divine authority 
of that New Testament. Still, it may be proper, if not 
necessary, to collect some of the vast amount of testimony 
to this point, which is to be found in that sacred volume; 
and we commence with, 

(1.) John viii, 54: " It is my Father that honoreth me; 
of whom ye say that He is your God." That the Jews, 



142 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

to whom the Saviour was speaking, claimed the only true 
and living God, as their God, is a matter of such notoriety, 
as to need no proof; and Jesus affirmed, unequivocally, 
that He, whom they claimed as their God, was His Father 
— tee Father, in the current language of the New Testa- 
ment. If, then, credit be due to the solemn affirmation 
of our blessed Saviour, the Father is very and true God. 

(2.) 1 Cor. viii, 6: "To us there is hut one God, the 
Father." Could the true and proper Deity of the Father, 
be more clearly and emphatically proclaimed than it is in 
this brief sentence ? If He be not very and true God, then 
the apostle,, and the whole Christian Church, in whose 
name He speaks, are utterly " without God in the world," 
instead, as they claim, of having a clearer and fuller 
knowledge of, and a purer devotion to, the true God, than 
any others have ever had. 

(3.) 2 Cor. i, 3 : " Blessed be God, even the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God 
of all comfort." That the " Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ," is the Father, referred to in the argument, is 
evident from very many passages of Scripture, especially 
from the claim of paternity to Jesus Christ," asserted by 
the voice from heaven, at the close of the Saviour's bap- 
tism. Here, the Father, then, is put in apposition with 
God, and is, moreover, declared to be " the Father of 
mercies " — the source, fountain or origin of all the 
mercies exercised towards sinful man — "and God of all 
comfort " — the spring of all joy, the contriver, artificer 
and giver of all happiness — the perennial fountain of all 
bliss, in heaven as well as upon earth. He is, then, very 
and true God ; for, only of the true God could these things 
be truly affirmed. 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 143 

(4.) Gal i, 1, 3 : " Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither 
by man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the Father, who 
raised Him from the dead,) — Grace le to you, and peace 
from God, the Father." Thus, within the compass of only 
three verses, has the apostle twice put the Father in apposi- 
tion with God; and, he has, also, as evincive of the proper 
Divinity which he ascribed to Him, invoked grace and 
peace, from Him, upon the Galatians,as well as recognized 
His supreme authority in His own apostleship, and His 
power over death, in raising up the Lord Jesus Christ 
from under its dominion. Could anything more satis- 
factorily establish the claim of the Father, to be very and 
true God? 

(5.) Fphes. vi, 23: "Peace be to the brethren, and 
love, with faith, from God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus 
Christ." Here, again, the Father and God, are put in 
apposition — both designating the same person, which is 
the effect of apposition. Other similar passages might be 
cited from the New Testament Scriptures, in great num- 
bers; but those already cited, it is presumed, are amply 
sufficient to put it beyond controversy, that true and proper 
Deity is, in terms and expressly, ascribed to the person, 
denominated, in the Scriptures of the New Testament, 
the Father. 

Besides this direct ascription of Divinity to the Father, 
it would be an easy matter to establish His claim, to be 
very and true God, from the requirement, of homage, 
worship and devotion, made in His behalf of those who are 
enjoined in the most solemn manner, to render them only 
to the true God : — from the work of creation, the super- 
vision of providence and the scheme of salvation, which, 
belonging properly and exclusively to God, are ascribed to 



144 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

the Father ; — and, from the most unequivocal attribute 
of sovereignty — that of judging and rewarding or pun- 
ishing all accountable beings, for all their works, as they 
have been good or bad. This right or attribute of sover- 
eignty does not the less belong to the Father, because he 
has " committed all judgment to the Son ; ' for, we are 
expressly told that He will perform this act of sovereignty 
hj His Son. Acts xvii, 31: "He hath appointed a day in 
the which He will judge the world in righteousness, by 
that man whom He hath ordained : whereof He hath given 
assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from 
the dead." From St Peter, 1 Epis. i, 17, we learn that 
" the Father, without respect of persons, judgeth accord- 
ing to every man's work." On the whole, we consider 
this first member of our present proposition incontestably 
proved, and conclude, without hesitation or doubt, that 
the Person, denominated, in the New Testament Scrip- 
tures, the Father, is very and true God. We proceed to 
prove, 

2. That the Person, who, in Scripture, is denominated 
the Son, or the Word, is very and true God. We shall, 
in the main, pursue the same course of argument, in 
making the proof of this member of the second proposi- 
tion, as that which was followed in proving the one just 
disposed of. In the first place, evidence that to the 
Person, called the Son, or the Word, is directly appropriated 
the name of God, in its proper, viz., its highest signification, 
will be produced. Afterwards, collateral and confirmatory 
evidence will be, at least, glanced at, if not dwelt on at 
length. 

(1.) Our first evidence, that the Son, or the Word, is 
very and true God, is found in Ps. xlv, 6, compared with 



TRINITY IN UNIT!. 145 

Heb. ij 8. In the former place, it is written, "Thy throne, 
0, God ! is forever and ever : the sceptre of thy king- 
dom is a right sceptre." In the latter place, " unto the 
Son, He saith, ' Thy throne, 0, God ! is forever and ever : 
a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.' " 
Little comment, on these compared texts, can be neces- 
sary — the language is, at once, so explicit and so emphatic, 
in expressing the proper Divinity of the person, called the 
Son. But, it may not be amiss to remark that this attesta- 
tion to that Divinity is in an address of God Himself to the 
Son. There can be no possible evasion of the force of this 
evidence, without impugning either the truth of God, or 
the authority of this Psalm, or of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, as a revelation of truth from God. With those, 
who would do any of these things, we have, at present, no 
controversy. Our argument, noiv, is with only those who 
concede the authority of Revelation in general, and who 
subscribe to the dictum — "Let God be true, and," or 
though, " every man" should be " a liar," or in error. Not 
only is the simple fact, of the Godhead of the Son, ex- 
pressly declared, but, there is also ascribed to Him an 
everlasting, and, therefore, nnderived throne, or seat of 
majesty, and a sceptre of righteousness, or a righteousness 
of government, both as regards his right to govern, and 
to the exact equity of both the principles and the admin- 
istration of His government. All which could appertain 
to the infinitely perfect God alone. More decisive evi- 
dence, that the person, called the Son, is very and true 
God, than that here presented, cannot even be imagined. 
(2.) Our second proof, that the person, called the Son, 
is directly represented as very and true God, is furnished 
by Ps. cii, 24, 25, compared with Heb. i, 8, 9, 10. In 



146 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

the former place, we read : " I said, 0, God, my God ! take 
me not away in the midst of my days ! Thy years are 
throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the 
foundations of the earth ; and the heavens are the work 
of thy hands." In the latter place, " But, unto the Son, 
He saith, ' Thy throne, 0, God ! is forever and ever : a 
sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom: 
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity ; there- 
fore, God, even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil 
of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou Lord, in the 
beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the 
heavens are the work of thy hands. " Observe, 1st, that 
the address, in the Psalm from which we have quoted, is 
affirmed, by the text cited from the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
to have been made to the Son; 2d, that the person 
addressed is denominated God — " 0, God, myGod!"-and 
3rd, that to Him are ascribed, in this Psalm, providence 
and creation, and elsewhere, as cited in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, eternal dominion, and both a right to govern and 
a righteous government : all which belong only to the 
Supreme Being. By what rule of interpretation or canon 
of rational criticism, can the conclusion be avoided, that 
the person, to whom such ascriptions could be appropriately 
made, is very and true God ? Either the author of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews did not properly represent the 
meaning of the Psalmist, or the Psalmist was himself in 
error, or the Son is God, Creator of the earth and the 
heavens ; and, eternally, the righteous and rightful 
Sovereign of the universe. As the two former of these 
alternative suppositions, are utterly inadmissible, by any 
one who believes the Scriptures to be the word of the 
God of truth, the other supposition must be adopted. It 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 147 

would be difficult to conceive a more clear, direct and 
incontestable proof, of any position, than is here afforded, 
that the Son is very and true God 

(3.) Our third evidence, that the Son is very and true 
{rod, is taken from Isa. vi,l-5, compared with John xii, 40, 
41. In the former place, we find recorded a vision of the 
Holy One, which overwhelmed the prophet with fear and 
awe: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and 
lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood 
the seraphim : each one had six wings ; with twain he cov- 
ered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with 
twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, 
*Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is 
full of His glory !' And the posts of the door moved at 
the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with 
smoke. Then said I, woe is me ! for I am undone ; because 
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a 
people of unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the King, 
the Lord of hosts;" and verse 10: "Make the heart of 
this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their 
eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their 
ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and 
be healed." In the latter place, is a citation from this 
passage of Isaiah, and a distinct reference of the vision, 
above described, to the Son : " He hath blinded their eyes, 
and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with 
their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be con- 
verted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, 
when he saw His glory and spake of him." The connection 
of the passage shows indubitably that the Son is the person 
of whom the evangelist is speaking in this place ; as will 
be seen by referring to verses 34 to 39. It is true, He is 



148 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

called the Son of man : but, as the Son of man, and Jesus 
Christ, are here seen to be identical, so, Jesus CJirist, and 
the Son, are, in innumerable instances, seen to be identical 
also. It was the Son, then, whom the prophet, in his 
glorious vision, beheld sitting, in august majesty, upon 
a sublimely elevated throne — the everlasting seat of His 
rule supreme. It was to Him, that that vast assemblage 
of spiritual beings, who thronged the temple, rendered 
homage, devotion and obedience. It was of Him, that the 
seraphim, who stood above the train, — as of superior rank, 
— cried to one another, in choral chant, "Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord" (JEHOVAH,) "of hosts: the whole earth is 
full of His glory." And could such a vision represent 
any being inferior to the true God ? Nay, the peculiar, 
incommunicable name of God, JEHOVAH, is expressly 
given to Him thrice — twice by the prophet, and once by 
the seraphim. Would it be possible to furnish more con- 
clusive proof, of any fact, than is here presented, that the 
Son is very and true God — the JEHOVAH of the Old 
Testament, the Object of celestial worship and adoration? 
(4.) Our fourth evidence, in support of this member of 
our second proposition, is recorded in John i, 1-4. "In 
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning 
with God. All things were made by Him ; and, without 
Him, was not any thing made that was made. In Him, 
was life ; and the life was the light of men." In remarking 
on this passage, the first thing that claims our notice is the 
word, beginning. It can be used properly in relation to 
time and the things of time only. It cannot, without gross 
absurdity, be applied to eternity, or to things which are 
strictly eternal. What, then, is its probable application in 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 149 

this place? We suppose, from its intimate connection with 
the account which the evangelist here gives of creation, 
that its application is to time itself; as we consider time 
and creation strictly coexistent. If we are right in our 
view, then, the evangelist affirms that the Word was — 
was in existence in the beginning of time ; and, if so, He 
does not belong to time, but to eternity. In other words, 
He is an unoriginated Being, having had no beginning, nor 
any cause of being. This interpretation is confirmed by 
the guarded, explicit and very emphatic declaration that 
He was the maker of all things that were made ; for, there 
would be utter absurdity in supposing that He began to be, 
without being made ; and an equal absurdity in supposing 
He made Himself. When time began, then, the Word 
was in existence — an unoriginated, independent Being. 
Again : in the beginning of time, " The Word was with 
God" — the fellozu companion, associate of God. This fel- 
lowship of the Word with God, is placed upon its proper 
ground — the ground of equality « — in what follows — In 
the beginning of time, "The Word was God. The same 
was, in the beginning, with God." God with God, is equal 
association, congruous fellowship, suitable companionship. 
He, who, in the beginning, was God, was the same who was 
with God. 

To render his intention, of ascribing proper Deity to 
the Word indubitably certain, the evangelist represents 
him as the Creator of all things that were made. No one, 
it is presumed, imagines that any other being than God 
has creative power. We have said that the evangelist's 
statement of this matter is guarded, explicit and very 
emphatic. Hear him : " All things were made by Him, and, 
without Him was not any thing made that was made." 



150 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

However numerous, exalted or powerful the inhabitants 
of heaven, or the prisoners in the horrible pit — however 
many or magnificent the worlds or systems of worlds, that 
revolve in universal space — and, whatever sentient beings 
occupy those worlds, from the mite to the mastodon, from 
the least apprehensive animal to man, in all the glory of 
his intellectual and moral powers — all, all are the creatures 
of His hand. 

Once more : the evangelist says, a In Him was life - r 
and the life was the light of men." There is much 
difficulty in this passage ; and, we apprehend, commen- 
tators generally have missed the true meaning. They 
understand it as affirming that He was the Giver of life to 
all who live. We doubt whether any reference to this 
undoubted truth was had in this place. We venture to 
suggest the following, as the true meaning of the passage : 
" In Him was life" — essential, underived, independent life. 
Men were dead*, by the sentence of a violated law of God, 
and could be redeemed only by the vicarious death of one, 
who, not only could offer merit equivalent to the claims 
of the law, but had also both the right to dispose of His 
own life, and power to resume it, after having, by laying 
it down, met the claims of the law. This merit, right and 
power could belong to no creature. Only an unoriginated, 
independent Being — only God could have them. The 
Word, as God, had life in Himself; and this " life was the 
light of men"> — their only hope of salvation. That the life 
here spoken of has direct, perhaps exclusive reference to 
the gospel scheme of salvation, appears almost certain from 
what follows : "And, the light shineth in darkness ; and 
the darkness comprehended it not." This is lamentably 
the fact, with respect to the reception which the gospel 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 151 

meets with generally, amid the moral darkness of a world 
" lying in the wicked one." 

Reviewing the whole of this inestimable passage, who 
can doubt that He, who in the beginning of time, existed, 
existed with God, existed as God, God with God — who 
created all that was created; and, who, having underived, 
independent life, was, by means of that life, qualified to be 
the Saviour of sinful, lost mankind — who can doubt that 
He is very and true God ? 

(5.) The last direct evidence, which we shall cite, of the 
proper Deity of the Son, is from Rom. ix, 5 : "Of whom, 
as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God, 
blessed forever. Amen !" This testimony is so direct, 
so conclusive, so utterly incontestable that the adversaries 
of the Divinity of Christ have felt themselves compelled 
to resort to suppositious emendations of the text, in 
the face of all authority of manuscripts and versions, to 
keep in countenance their determined hostility to the 
doctrine they oppose. The amendments they propose 
have not the merit of even congruity to the context, or 
probability, in their special pleadings. And, indeed, we see 
no possible evasion of the doctrine of our proposition, 
admitting the text to be genuine, and of authority in the 
question. The apostle intimates a two-fold nature in 
Christ — a human nature, derived from the Israelitish 
stock — the other nature is not directly specified, but is 
intimated to be the Divine ; for, in the text cited, Christ, 
without discriminating between the specified and intimated 
natures, combined in His person, is declared to be " over 
all, God, blessed forever;" and, the inference seems to 
us irresistible, that He is God, because His human nature 
is united to the Divine. Most certainly, the union of two 



152 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

natures, neither of which was Divine, could not, by any 
possibility, have entitled the compound being, so consti- 
tuted, to have been regarded as " over all, God, blessed 
forever." 

We feel warranted in assuming, that a sufficient amount 
of direct testimony to the proper Divinity of the Son, has 
now been brought forward ; though, did we deem it neces- 
sary, we should have no difficulty in adding greatly to 
it. In connection with this direct testimony, we have had 
frequent occasion to notice, incidentally, collateral evi- 
dences in support of the same doctrine. We have seen 
that the Scriptures claim for the Son, independent, unori- 
ginated existence — eternal dominion — the creation of all 
things — and the final judgment and determination of the 
destiny of all accountable beings. Besides all this, we 
learn, from the same indisputable authority, that all the 
hosts of heaven, as well as the inhabitants of the earth, 
are required, by the Divine mandate, to worship the Son; 
and men are required to honor Him, even as the Father is 
honored ; which, as men are strictly forbidden to worship 
any other than the one trae and living God, is an irrefra- 
gable proof that He is regarded, in the Scriptures, as very 
and true God. Moreover : He claims to be in heaven and 
upon earth at the same time. "No man hath ascended 
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even 
the Son of man, which is in heaven." — John iii, 13. And 
He promises that His presence shall be with any two or 
three of His servants, wherever and whenever assembled 
together : " Where two or three are gathered together in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them." — Matt. 
xviii, 20. And, as His servants may be assembled thus 
together, in every region of the inhabited parts of the 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 153 

earth, at the same moment, an extent of presence, far 
beyond what is possible to man, or, indeed, to any creature, 
is implied — if absolute ubiquity is not implied, in this 
promise, as well as in the claim, of being in heaven and 
on earth at the same time. Universal presence is an 
attribute universally considered as belonging exclusively 
to the true God. He is not only independent in exist- 
ence, and the Giver of life to all that lives ; but He 
will give eternal life — eternal happiness — to all those who 
obey Him. From all this, we are satisfied that this second 
member, of our second proposition, is established, beyond 
all reasonable controversy; and, therefore, affirm, most 
confidently, that the person, denominated, in the New 
Testament, the Son, is very and true God. And, we now 
proceed to attempt the etablishment of the truth of the 
remaining member, of this second proposition, viz : 

3. That the person termed in Scripture, the Holy Ghost, 
or the Holy Spirit, is very and true God. In accordance 
with the plan, heretofore pursued, we shall commence the 
proof of this point, by adducing direct evidence of its 
truth, from the Holy Scriptures ; and, 

(1.) Our first proof of this position, is taken from 
2 Tim. iii, 16 : " All Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God," compared with 2 Peter i, 20, 21 : " No, prophecy 
of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation. For 
the prophecy came not, in old time, by the will of men ; 
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost." It would be difficult for any proof to be 
more clear, more direct or more conclusive than is this, 
that the person, called the Holy Ghost, is very and true 
God. No discussion can render it plainer — no language 
could make it more direct or more decisive than it is. 



154 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

No prophecy of the Scripture is of man, but from the 
motion of the Holy Ghost ; and, all Scripture was given by 
inspiration of God. It is, therefore, perfectly clear and 
certain that, if these Scriptures are the truth of God, the 
Holy Ghost is very and true God. 

(2.) Our second proof, of the point under consideration, 
is found in Acts v, 3, 4 : "Why hath Satan rilled thy heart 
to lie unto the Holy Ghost ? Why hast thou conceived 
this thing in thy heart ? Thou hast not lied unto men, 
but unto God." Here Holy Ghost and God evidently 
stand for the same Divine person. Language could not 
be more explicit ; and therefore, this text clearly proves 
that the Holy Ghost is very and true God. 

(3.) Our third evidence, results from a comparison of 
Acts xxviii, 25-28: "Well spake the Holy Ghost, by 
Esaias, the prophet, unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this 
people and say, Hearing, ye shall hear, and shall not 
understand; and, seeing, ye shall see, and shall not 
perceive ; for the heart of this people is waxed gross, 
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have 
they closed; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with 
their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be 
converted and I should heal them," — with Isa. vi, 8-10 : 
"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, 
and who will go for us ? Then said I, ' Here am I, send 
me ;' and He said, \ go and tell this people,' Hear ye, 
indeed, but understand not ; and see ye, indeed, but 
perceive not.' Make the heart of this people fat, and make 
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with 
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with 
their heart, and convert, and be healed." In these 
compared passages, the person, who by the apostle is called 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 155 

the Holy Ghost, is called, b}^ the prophet, the Lord, or 
Jehovah — the well-known name of God, and exclusively 
applied to the true God. Hence we conclude that the 
Holy Ghost is very and true God. 

(4.) Our fourth proof, of the point now under conside- 
ration, will be found in Heb. ix, 7, 8 : " Into the second 
went the High Priest alone, once every year, not without 
blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of 
the people : the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way 
into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest;" com- 
pared with Lev. xvi, 2 and 29, 30: "And the Lord said 
unto Moses, 6 speak unto Aaron, thy brother that he come 
not at all times into the holy place within the vail, before 
the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not; 
for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. And 
this shall be a statute unto you, that, in the seventh 
month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict 
your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of 
your own country or a stranger that sojourneth among- 
you: For, on that day, shall the Priest make an atone- 
ment for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from 
all your sins before the Lord.' The proof of our position, 
from these compared passages, must be obvious to every 
attentive reader of them. The design of the entrance of 
the High Priest, alone, once every year, into the holy 
place, within the vail, with a sacrifice of atonement, is 
ascribed, by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, to 
the Holy Ghost : while we are, in Leviticus, expressly 
informed that the Lord, i. e. JEHOVAH, gave direction 
in the whole matter; so that, He, who, in Hebrews, is called 
the Holy Ghost,is the same person^Nho, in Leviticus, is called 
JEHOVAH. The Holy Ghost, then, is very and true God, 



156 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

(5.) Our fifth evidence, of the proper Divinity of the 
Holy Ghost, is found in Heb. x, 15, 16 : " The Holy Ghost 
also is a witness to us; for, after that He had said before, 
' This is the covenant that I will make with them, after 
those days, saith the Lord I will put my laws into their 
hearts, and in their minds will I write them,' " — compared 
with Jer. xxxi, 33 : " This shall be the covenant that I will 
make with the house of Israel : after those days, saith the 
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write 
it in their hearts." There are, in both these passages, 
two speakers mentioned — one of them gives an account 
of what the other had said. In the epistle, one of these 
speakers is called the Holy Ghost; the other is called the 
Lord. In the prophecy, both are called the Lord, or 
JEHOVAH. The person, then, who, in the epistle, 
is called the Holy Ghost, is, in the prophecy, called 
JEHOVAH. We have affirmed that He, who, in the 
epistle, is called the Holy Ghost, is in the prophecy, called 
JEHOVAH : This will be evident from the verses imme- 
diately preceding the verse just cited, where it will be 
found that the person giving an account of the establish- 
ment of a new covenant with the house of Israel, by 
JEHOVAH, is frequently called JEHOVAH. The Holy 
Ghost is, therefore, by these passages of sacred Scripture, 
clearly proved to be very and true God. 

These direct testimonies, to the proper Divinity of the 
Holy Ghost, we deem amply sufficient. Beyond a few 
concurring witnesses, testimony is but little strengthened 
by accumulation — a In the mouth of two or three wit- 
nesses, shall every word be established." But, though we 
consider the direct testimony, which we have adduced, 
altogether sufficient, it may not be inexpedient to notice 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 157 

some collateral and confirmatory evidence on the same 
point. And, we are informed that the Holy Ghost was 
employed in the work of Creation: "The Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters." — Gen. i, 2. "By His 
Spirit He hath garnished the heavens." — Job xxvi, 13. 
Again, the Holy Ghost is, by the whole tenor of the 
Scripture, represented as dictating prophecy — implying 
'prescience in Him — "Prophecy came not, in old time, by 
the will of man; but, holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." — 2 Peter i, 21. Once more: 
the power to perform miracles, is evidently ascribed, 
throughout the Acts and the Epistles, to the effusion of 
the Holy Ghost upon those who were instrumental in 
those works. This is so notoriously the fact, that it is 
needless to cite any particular testimony in its support. 
Finally, the work of grace, whereby man is fitted for the 
presence of God, and the society of holy creatures, is 
represented as being performed by the Holy Ghost. He, 
it is, who quickens, enlightens, draws, renews and sancti- 
fies. He, it is, who guides, protects, succors and comforts. 
All that is done, in bringing men "from darkness into 
God's marvelous light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God : " whatsoever is done, in " building them up in their 
most holy faith," or in preserving them, " through faith, to 
salvation" — is performed by Him. Now, creation, pre- 
science and the power to control the laws of nature, and 
to " create men anew in Christ Jesus, unto good works," 
belong to God, and only to God; and, therefore, we con- 
clude that, in thus representing the Holy Ghost, it was 
the purpose of the Holy Scriptures to teach us that He is 
the true God. On the whole, we feel warranted in coming 
decidedly to the conclusion, that the Holy Ghost is very 



158 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

and true God. And, we shall, therefore, proceed to the 
discussion of our third proposition, viz : 

III. That there is but one true and living God. As 
this proposition was the subject of discussion, in a former 
Discourse, it will not, we suppose, be necessary, or even 
proper, to dwell upon it in this, at any great length. Still, 
with a view to have the whole subject under the eye at 
the same time, it is deemed expedient, if not necessary, 
briefly to consider some of the evidences which go to estab- 
lish the truth of this proposition. In doing this, we shall 
select other proofs than those which we have already 
brought forward; and, 

1. We cite Ps. xviii, 31: "Who is God, save the 
Lord?" Every well-informed reader is aware that there 
can be no more forcible affirmation of any truth, than 
a triumphant interrogatory. The interrogatory we have 
cited, is of this description — its manifest import being 
a strong affirmation that there " is no God, save the Lord," 
or JEHOVAH; which is always the equivalent of Lord, 
as here written. 

2. The name, under which God revealed Himself to the 
Israelites, by Moses, clearly expresses the unity of the 
Divine nature. " I AM THAT I AM," is in the singular, 
and indicates One alone. Had there been more than One 
God, propriety would have required that He should have 
designated Himself as one of the number, who share 
Divinity with Him, by some such denomination as the 
following: "I AM ONE OF THOSE WHO ARE;" 
but, in the name He has applied to Himself, He lays 
claim not only to independent, unoriginated existence, but 
to such existence exclusively. 

3. Isaiah xliv, 8, 24: "Is there a God besides me? 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 159 

Yea, there is no God. I know not any. I am the Lord, 
that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens 
alone; that spreacleth abroad the earth by myself." 
Language could not express, in clearer or stronger terms, 
the claim to exclusive Godhead, on the part of JEHO- 
VAH. But, not only is the claim, to be God alone, 
directly made — it is also inferentially advanced, in the 
averment that He only is the Maker of all things, tvho 
hath stretched forth the heavens alone, and spread abroad 
the earth by Himself: for as the power of Creation is, on 
all hands, considered as belonging to God, if JEHOVAH 
has made all things — if He has stretched forth the 
heavens alone, and spread abroad the earth by Himself, 
He is not only God, but God alone; and, therefore, there 
is but one God. 

4. Once more: Mark xii, 29: "The Lord, our God, is 
one Lord;" compared with Dent vi, 4: "The Lord, our 
God is one Lord." The object of the comparison of these 
scriptures, is to show that the term Lord, in Mark, is 
identical in signification with the term Lord, or JEHO- 
VAH, in Deuteronomy. The effect, in both cases, is to 
establish, in the closest manner, the unity of the Divine 
nature; for, as there is no name or title more exclusively 
appropriated to the true God, than JEHOVAH, and as 
both these scriptures affirm that JEHOVAH, the God 
of Israel, is one JEHOVAH, it follows that the true God 
— the God of the Bible — - is one God alone. 

We have now, we are firmly persuaded, clearly and 
incontestably established the three propositions we under- 
took to maintain — That the persons, called, in the New 
Testament, The Father, the Son, or the Word and the Holy 
Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, are distinct peesons; that each 



160 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

of these persons, considered distributively, is very and true 
God; and, that there is but One True and living God. 
The establishment of these propositions, we regard as 
equivalent to the establishment of the doctrine that there 
are three persons in One God — in other words, the doc- 
trine of the Trinity in Unity, in the Divine nature. The 
argument is briefly this — There is hut one true and 
living God; but, The Father, the Son and the Holy 
Ghost are three distinct persons, and are each, dis- 
tribute ely considered, very and true God; Therefore, there 
are three persons, in the One true and living God. We 
cannot see how this conclusion is to be avoided, if the 
propositions discussed have been maintained - — and we are 
unable to see any defect in the proof by which they are 
supported. We, therefore, rest satisfied that the doctrine, 
of the Trinity in Unity, is established, beyond the reach 
of successful controversy. 

This doctrine we hold to be of vast importance. Upon 
it, it seems to us, rests the whole scheme of man's 
recovery from the disastrous and ruinous consequences 
of the original transgression of the Divine law by him. 
Each person of the Trinity has a definite office, in this 
great work, ascribed to Him, in the Holy Scriptures. The 
administrative authority, under the first covenant, is 
ascribed to the Father. He, it is, who is the party 
offended by the transgression under that covenant ; whose 
office requires that He see that the violated law he magni- 
fied and rendered honorable; who, nevertheless, so loved 
man, as to provide for his salvation, by giving His only- 
begotten Son, to he a propitiaton for his sin, and, who, 
through the merits of this propitiation, extends pardon to 
all of the guilty race, who secure a personal interest in 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 161 

those merits, by complying with the terms on which it is 
offered. The office of the Son is that of Mediator — 
combining in Himself the functions of Priest, Sacrifice, 
Advocate and Administrator of the government, under 
the Second, or New covenant. — Offering Himself, the Just 
for the unjust — after His resurrection, ever living, at the 
right hand of God, to make intercession for man — and 
ruling, in His mediatorial "kingdom, as King of saints. 
That part of the plan of salvation, which pre-eminently 
belongs to the Holy Ghost, is the influence to be exerted 
upon man, in order to bring him within the scope of its 
successful operation. It is by Him that man, dead in 
trespasses and in sins, is inspired with new life. It is by 
Him that those, who, blind and in darkness, are wandering 
in utter bewilderment, are enlightened, and guided, out of 
darkness, into God's marvelous light He convinces of sin, 
takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to the peni- 
tent sinner; thus exciting that faith, which justifies the 
ungodly, and brings to the conscience of the believer the evi- 
dence of pardon, acceptance with God and adoption, as His 
child and heir. It is by Him that the believer is strength- 
ened, ivith might in the inner man; so that he is enabled to 
fight the good fight of faith — run, with patience, the race 
set before him, and endure to the end. It is by the Holy 
Ghost, moreover, that the faithful believer is sanctified, 
throughout soul, body and spirit, and is thus made to be 
meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Thus, while 
it is God ivho ivorkcth all, in all that concerns the salvation 
of man, each of the three Divine persons has His pecu- 
liar department in the stupendous achievement. 

We do not consider the Trinity in Unity as, in any way, 
or in any degree, dependent on the plan of human salvation. 
11 



162 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

We conceive it to be the proper, the eternal nature of the 
unsearchable Jehovah — but, we do suppose that the 
revelation of this mystery of the Divine nature to man 
was made with special, if not with exclusive, reference to 
that plan. Had there been no necessity for such a mani- 
festation of the Divine nature, we deem it at least probable 
that the mystery of the Trinity in Unity would have been 
forever treasured up among those " secret things, which 
belong to the LORD our God;" but, in consequence of a 
necessity of that kind having arisen out of human trans- 
gression, that deep and mysterious manifestation has been 
made " to us and to our children," and is now the proper 
subject of our faith and adoration — not of philosophical 
speculation upon the nature of the fact thus revealed 
to us. 

Believing the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, in the 
Divine nature, to have been fully established, by the argu- 
ments we have above presented; and, believing, further, 
that our text is a genuine portion of the Sacred Scriptures, 
and that it teaches the doctrine we have been defending, 
we consider ourselves not only entitled but obliged to treat 
it with such reverence and deference as belong to the 
Word of God And, hence, we consider it important to 
ascertain, as far as we are able, the further meaning of our 
text. It affirms that "There are three that bear record in 
heaven," and that "these three are one." This involves 
our remaining position, viz., 

IV. That these three Persons bear unanimous testimony 
to salvation by Christ. We proceed, therefore, to show, 

1. That salvation by Christ was the subject testified to 
by these heavenly Witnesses. They testify to this all- 
important fact, in a great variety of forms of speech, and 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 163 

modes of representation: Thus, in connection with our 
text, they testify that, through Jesus Christ, man may 
attain to eternal life, with the moral qualifications neces- 
sary to his enjoyment of it. In verse 11, we learn that 
the record attested by these Witnesses is " that God hath 
given to us eternal life ; and this life is in His Son." In 
verses 1-5, we learn that " Whosoever believeth that Jesus 
is the Christ, is born of God" — "overcometh the world" 
— "keepeth the commandments of God" — "loveth Him 
that begat, and Him that is begotten of Him." To all 
this, the Three Witness-bearers in heaven, bear their united 
testimony. 

That this is true, with regard to " the Woed and the 
Holy Ghost," needs no proof or exemplification, — as the 
Gospel and apostolic Epistles are mainly filled with the 
testimony of these two important witnesses, to the truth 
of these important averments in the record. In John v, 
24, our blessed Saviour declares: "He that heareth my 
word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting 
life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed 
from death into life." Hearing the word of Christ, and 
believing on Him that sent Him, is here represented as 
securing from condemnation, and from death; and, as 
putting those, who do so, in possession of everlasting life. 
In verse 37, of the same chapter, we learn that the testi- 
mony of the Father, which is to be believed, is that He 
hath sent Christ; and, in Acts iii, 26, we are informed 
that " God, having raised up his Son, Jesus, sent Him to 
bless you, in turning away every one of you from your 
iniquities." Hence, as Christ was sent to bring to pass 
those very results, which are here ascribe ol to believing on 
the Father and to hearing the word of Christ, when the 



164 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

Father testifies to the sending of His Son, He, in effect, 
testifies to these purposes of His Son's mission. Again: 
Luke xi, 35. In the "close of the transfiguration-scene, 
when the heavenly visitants of the Saviour had entered 
into the cloud, which hid them from the gaze of the won- 
dering disciples, we are told, " There came a voice out of 
the cloud, saying, 'This is my beloved Son: hear Him.' 
Here, we have the Father's testimony, borne to the Son, 
connected with an injunction to " hear Him" — a leading 
condition, as we have just seen, of escaping condemnation and 
death, and of securing everlasting life. But, we suppose, 
it is not at all necessary to multiply specific instances of 
the fact that the Father has borne witness to the Son, 
as the author of eternal life, and the giver of those 
qualifications which are necessary for its enjoyment, since 
the whole sacrificial system, and the whole ceremonial 
economy, which were ordained and enjoined by Him, 
are typical of the mission of His Son, to save mankind; 
and, since all the prophets, from Samuel to John the Bap- 
tist, who spake the Word of God, have given Cc witness, 
that, through His name, whosoever believeth in Him, shall 
receive remission of sins." And, this joint testimony, 
of all the prophets, is given in the name and on the 
authority of the Father, and by the inspiration of His 
Holy Spirit. These Three, then, the Father, the Word 
and the Holy Ghost, bear witness to Christ, as sent of 
God, to give eternal life to man, and to qualify him to 
participate in it with the holy spirits in light. 

2. The Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost are, in 
the text, said to " bear record in heaven?** We suppose 
this to be true, in the sense most directly conveyed by the 



TRINITY IN UNITY. 165 

language of the text, as it is arranged in our translation; 
but, we apprehend that that arrangement may not clearly 
express the meaning intended to be conveyed. May we 
not justly suppose that the idea, intended to be conveyed, 
by the phrase, in heaven, was the residence of the Witnesses, 
rather than the scene of their testimony? And, would 
not this idea be more clearly conveyed by the following 
arrangement of the sentence: — "There are Three in 
heaven, that bear record?" The idea intended to be 
expressed, we suppose to have been, that there are three 
heavenly Witnesses, who testify concerning Christ, to men 
— the parties chiefly interested in the testimony. 

3. Finally: Our text says, u and these three are One.'* 
Some thorough-going Trinitarians understand this text, as 
by no means concerned with the doctrine of the Trinity 
in Unity; and restrain the Unity, here spoken of, to the 
testimony borne by the three heavenly Witnesses. Now, 
whether the apostle did or did not express the unity of the 
Trinity in the Divine nature, — and, we believe he did — 
we have no doubt that the unity of the testimony, borne by 
the three persons in the Godhead, is expressly intended. 
And, how worthy of their attestation, the matter witnessed 
by them! It embraces the whole scheme of human sal- 
vation by Jesus Christ. How flagrantly culpable are those 
who reject, or even disregard this testimony! And, how 
unwise, as well as culpable, must we regard them, — seeing 
that, in so doing, they "reject the counsel of God against 
themselves," and cut themselves off from eternal life ! On 
the contrary, how wisely do those who consult their best 
good, who, by hearing the voice of the Saviour, believing 
the testimony which God hath given of His Son, and 



166 TRINITY IN UNITY. 

walking in the commandments of Christ, lay hold on eternal 
life ! Theirs is superior wisdom ! Theirs is boundless, 
unmixed, eternal bliss! And, now, may "the grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost," — the blessing of the One 
true and living God, be and abide with us, evermore ! 
Amen I 



DISCOURSE IV. 

ON THE CREATION OF ALL THINGS. 

The living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things 

that are therein. — Acts xiv, 15. 

The apostles, Paul and Barnabas, after preaching the 
Gospel extensively in other regions, among the Gentiles, 
to whom the door of faith, had been recently opened, came 
to Lycaonia, for the same important purpose ; and, in two 
of the cities of that country, Derbe and Lystra, proclaimed 
their glad tidings to the people. What success attended 
their preaching in those cities we are not informed. At 
the latter city, at length, there sat an unfortunate man in 
their audience, who was born and had always, previously 
to that time, remained a cripple in both his feet, so that 
he had never walked. Paul, remarking, probably in the 
intense interest with which he attended to the word 
preached, that he had the faith, or capability of the faith, 
necessary in order to his being made a whole, a sound 
man, by miraculous power, said unto him, in a loud voice, 
doubtless in order that general attention might be directed 
to him, a Stand upright on thy feet." The " word was 
with power ;" and the impotent man immediately "leaped 
and walked." The presence of Divine power was recog- 
nized, by those who witnessed the effect produced by the 
word of the apostle — and, who could fail to recognize it? 
But the Lystrians were polytheists and idolaters ; and, 
instead of considering Paul and Barnabas the servants of 

167 



168 CREATION. 

the One true and living God, they, naturally enough, 
supposed that those appostles were two of their "gods 
many," traveling, as they were sometimes fabled to do, in 
the disguise of men. Hence, they cried out, in their own 
proper language, "The gods are come down to us, in the 
likeness of men." For what reason they imagined Bar- 
nabas to be Jupiter, the " king of gods and men," we are 
not informed ; but, we are informed that Paul was sup- 
posed to be Mercurius "because he was the chief speaker;" 
for, Mercurius was not only supposed to be an eloquent 
speaker, but was represented to be the messenger and 
herald, chiefly employed by the superior deities, in their 
important communications with each other and with men. 
As the Lystrians believed that they were honored by the 
presence of Jupiter and Mercurius, in the persons of 
Barnabas and Paul, they, with ready piety, addressed 
themselves to the rendering of the homage and the 
worship to which these deities, especially the former, were 
believed to be entitled ; and, accordingly, the priest of 
Jupiter, whose temple, it would seem, was an appendage 
to the city, " brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, 
and would have done sacrifice" to them, in behalf of the 
people as well as himself. This movement, while it excited 
holy horror in the hearts of the apostles, afforded them a 
favorable opportunity of proclaiming, with peculiar ad- 
vantage, the great truths of the gospel to the deluded 
Lystrians. This opportunity they promptly and faithfully 
improved. To evince their horror at the proposed sacrifice 
to them, they "rent their clothes," and at once, to prevent 
the idolatry, of which they were the objects, from being 
carried into effect, and to seize the favorable occasion, 
for declaring the truth to their erring admirers, they " ran 



CREATION. 169 

in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs ! why 
do ye these things ? We also are men of like passions 
with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from 
these vanieties unto the living God, which made heaven, 
and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." 

It being the immediate object of Paul and Barnabas to 
inculcate the existence of the One true and living God — 
the fundamental truth of all religion, whether natural or 
revealed, — it was to be expected that they would bring 
forward, on this occasion, what they considered the most 
forcible evidence of that great truth. This they did by 
assigning to Him the Creation of all things. No theory 
of Creation, it is believed, ever was adopted, which did 
not recognize the exclusive power of Deity in that work. 
Hence, to affirm that any being was the Creator of all 
originated existence, was, in effect, to declare that being 
to be the true God. So, evidently, thought the apostles, 
Barnabas and Paul. Creation being the work of God, it 
becomes a matter of religious interest to understand, as 
far as we may, the extent and nature of this great work. 
Its extent is stated, with entire clearness, in the text. It 
is there shown to embrace heaven, earth, the sea, and all 
that are found in all these departments of the created 
universe. Of the nature of this stupendous work, it will 
not be easy to present an adequate representation. We 
shall, however, attempt such a representation, under the 
following propositions, viz : 

I. Creation is the origination of the matter and spirit, 
which constitute heaven, earth, the sea, and all things existing 
in them. 

II. Creation is the establishment of the laws, by which 
matter and spirit are respectively governed ; and, 



170 CREATION. 

III. Creation is the origination of all those organi- 
zations, whether of matter alone, or of matter and spirit 
in combination, which make up the indefinitely varied whole 
of the universe. 

I. Creation is the origination of the matter and spirit, 
which constitute heaven, earth, the sea, and all things exist- 
ing in them. 

The terms of this, our first proposition, imply that before 
Creation, there was, where heaven, earth and the sea now 
are, nothing but God in existence — no matter, no created 
spirit, in any form of existence. As space can be con- 
ceived of only in relation to substances existing within it, 
there was, intelligible to our capacity, no space ; and, as 
time is the measure of duration, applicable alone to things 
which have had a beginning, there was no time. All was 
infinitude — eternity — God! Nothing could be more idle 
than to arraign the counsels of Deity, because creation did 
not take place earlier. Let the era of creation be thrown 
back beyond its actual date, a million of years, and there 
is yet, before it, an unbeginning eternity, in which no 
creature is produced; and at the same date posterior to 
creation, as that at which we exist, there would be precisely 
the same ground for complaint — that creation was not 
earlier — that there now is: that is, there would be no 
rational ground for complaining whatever. 

We have no positive information which was first created, 
matter or spirit, or whether they were synchronously 
called into being ; nor is it at all important that we should 
either know, or be able to form a probable conjecture 
upon the subject. We deem it at least not improbable 
that they were simultaneously originated. Both were 



CREATION. 171 

important, nay, indispensable to the design of the Creator. 
There is much else that we do not and cannot know. We 
cannot know, for instance, whether every spiritual exist- 
ence was created individually, or whether there was a 
generical creation of spiritual existence. In the instance 
of the highest class of spiritual existence, with which we 
have any thing like an intimate acquaintance, it would 
seem that spirit was generical in its creation. But, this 
class is not simply spiritual. We^ of course, speak of man; 
who, being constituted of matter and spirit combined, is 
not simply spiritual in his nature. He may, therefore, in 
this respect, be no just type of purely spiritual beings. 
Again, we know not and cannot know the essential nature 
of either matter or spirit. We know enough of the 
qualities of each to be entirely certain that their natures 
as known by us are vastly dissimilar \ but we know abso- 
lutely nothing as to the proper nature of either the one 
or the other. Their existence is manifested, and, to some 
extent, characterized by the qualities, belonging to them 
respectively, which are placed within the reach of our 
faculties; and this is all we can know in regard to them. 
Once more : of the process of creation — the modus ope- 
randi of originating matter and spirit, we know nothing, 
beyond the simple fact that God commanded or willed their 
origination. " He spake, and it was done. He com- 
manded and it stood fast." This is all we know, all, even 
that we can imagine of the matter. When we examine 
a piece of human mechanism, one of our principal inquiries 
is, of what materials is it constructed? We never dream 
of these having been originated by its constructor. But, 
when speaking of creation, as the work of God, our first 
idea is, that the "things which are seen, were not made 



172 CREATION. 

of things which do appear." — Heb. xi, 3, but "by the 
word of God." 

Of the matter and spirit, thus brought into existence 
by the word of God, heaven, earth, the sea, and all that 
inhabit them, are composed, either by the organization of 
matter alone, or by its combination with spirit, or by 
simple spiritual existence. We know not of any third 
ingredient, in the vast and various compound, called the 
created universe. Nay, we can have no conception of any 
other ingredient than matter and spirit. Matter is incal- 
culably diversified in its form and in the special laws of 
its government in its various forms. But, whether solid 
or fluid, whether dense or rare, whether attractive or 
repellant, whether exhaling noxious and disgusting odors 
or the sweetest and most refreshing perfumes, whether an 
inconsiderable, hardly perceptible atom or a stupendous 
mountain, whether in a form of surpassing loveliness or of 
disgusting and hideous deformity, it is still only matter. 
And, unless united with spirit, or under the impulse of 
spirit, is, in all its possible arrangements, subject to the 
laws ordained for the government of matter as such. 

We suppose that matter came into existence with all 
its properties or qualities, and not that it was first created, 
and then endowed with the properties that belong to it in 
its present state. We can scarcely conceive of matter 
without, at least, some of its properties ; as, for instance, 
extension and figure. However attenuated we may con- 
ceive matter to be in its minutest dimensions, though a 
million times less than can be seen by the aid of the most 
powerful glasses, we think of it, necessarily, as occupying 
space, to the exclusion of all other matter ; and this is 
extension, Extension, however limited, supposes confi- 



CREATION. ITS 

guration or shape : and, hence, the idea of matter neces- 
sarily suggests that of extension and figure. It is, then, 
highly probable that matter was created with its properties, 
and not endued with them subsequently to its creation. 
So, also, we deem it highly probable that spirit came into 
existence in possession of all its capacities, its capabilities, 
its susceptibilities and its powers. These powers and sus- 
ceptibilities, we know, are capable of development, refine- 
ment and enlargement. This is a matter of constant 
experience and observation ; but, we never imagine the 
origination of one new power or susceptiblity, by any 
process which takes place subsequently to the beginning 
of a spiritual existence. Nor can we conceive of a spirit 
destitute of the susceptibilities and powers which are 
proper to that order of beings. 

Of the creation of matter and spirit, how little can be 
said ! How little can be even imagined ! We see, before 
us, an infinite capacity for created being, either spiritual, 
material or mixed, with not even an atom of matter, not 
one spiritual creature, to serve as a nucleus, to which to 
rally kindred natures, or as a seed, from which to multiply 
the kindred existences. But, this infinitude is pervaded 
by a Being, to whom possibility is power. Whatever is 
not intrinsically impossible, He can do. The creation of 
matter and spirit is possible; and, as a manifestation of its 
possibility > and, as showing forth " His eternal power and 
Godhead," the Everlasting One comes forth, in the exer- 
cise of His omnipotence, and effectually commands the 
existence of both these constituents of creature-existence. 
At His word, they come into being. This is all the pro- 
foundest philosophy can reason out in regard to creation; 
this is all that the liveliest fancy can paint of this stupen- 



174 CREATION. 

dous performance ; and, here, of course, we leave our first 
proposition — exhausted, we conceive, though so briefly 
and imperfectly treated. And, we proceed to consider our 
next proposition, viz. : 

II. Creation is the establishment of the laws by ivhich 
matter and spirit are respectively governed. 

We have already supposed that the properties of matter 
and the capacities of spirit were given in the act of crea- 
tion. These properties and capacities are the result of the 
operation of those laws by which these several depart- 
ments of creation are respectively governed, if, indeed, 
they be not identical with those laws: — they, at any rate, 
indicate the laws of those natures to which they respectively 
belong. But, what are these properties and capacities ? 
Are they essentially and necessarily qualities of the 
natures they regulate?- — or, are they impressions from 
without those natures, having not only their existence, but 
their efficiency directly and exclusively from the will and 
power of their ever-present, ever-active Author? We 
adopt the latter member of the alternative, presented in 
these interrogatories. Matter, we conceive, is wholly 
incapable of independent activity and efficiency, whether 
from its intrinsic nature, or as derived from the laws im- 
pressed upon it by its Creator. We suppose that the 
moment in which the Divine energy should be withdrawn 
from matter, would see it cease from all those operations 
which are ascribed to the influence of the laws of matter. 
The vis inertia?, which all science considers an essential 
property of matter, seems to us utterly inconsistent with 
any change of direction in the operation of matter without 
a correspondent impulse from an agency not material in 
its nature. And, though the strict dependence of spirit 



CREATION. 175 

upon its Creator, for its capabilities, is not so obvious as is 
that of matter for its properties, yet, such dependence is 
clearly taught in the Word of God. " In Him (God) we 
live, and move, and have our being." Were the sustaining 
energy of Him, who " upholdeth all things by the word of 
His power," withholden from the highest order of created 
spiritual beings, not only would the capabilities, by which 
such spiritual beings are distinguished, cease from their 
efficiency, bat those beings themselves must fall back into 
that non-existence, from which they were called forth by 
their Creator. The conservation of all created existence, 
as well as its origination, is ascribed to the Creator, equally 
by sound philosophy as by Divine Revelation. Created 
beings can no more sustain themselves, than they could 
have brought themselves into being. And, as the con- 
tinuance of their existence must result from the Divine 
support, so must the efficiency of the laws of their natures 
proceed from the constant presence of the Divine energy. 
The laws of matter, though producing an endless variety 
of the most stupendous results, are few and simple. It 
will not be expected that, in this discourse, these laws 
should be discussed, or even stated in detail. It is, we 
suppose, sufficient for us to remark that these laws are 
adequate, as instruments in the hands of the Creator and 
Conservator of all things, to the production, maintenance 
and regulation of the various states in which matter is found, 
from its most simple to its most complex forms of exist- 
ence — from the pure carbon of the diamond, to the 
substance that is compounded of many ingredients — 
from the hardly perceptible grain of sand, to the many- 
sphered and magnificent solar system. Attraction, in its 
various modes of operation; the interfusion of caloric, 



176 CREATION. 

with its expansive influence, throughout all material aggre- 
gations; the radiation of light; the property of exciting 
taste, and emitting odors and the statu quo tendency of 
the vis inertice, account for, if they do not produce, nearly 
all the phenomena of the material universe with which we 
are acquainted. It is eminently worthy the infinitely wise 
and powerful Creator to produce, by instrumentalities so 
few and simple, results so numerous, so various and so 
magnificent. 

The laws of spiritual existence and operation are 
equally worthy the perfections of Him, who is the "Father 
of the spirits of all flesh." Of the laws of spiritual sub- 
sistence, we know absolutely nothing, save that the same 
mysterious energy which called it into existence, " holdeth 
the soul in life." If any instrumentality be employed, 
for this purpose, it eludes the observation of the most 
perspicacious and deep-searching investigator of the mys- 
teries of metaphysics. No psychological physiology has 
ever been even imagined by the boldest explorers of 
nature's mysteries. It is not so, however, in regard to the 
laws of spiritual operation. Much may be — much is 
already known of the laws of mental action. And, here, 
as in the case of matter, the infinitely wise Contriver has 
provided for the most astonishing results, by the endow- 
ment of spirit with a few simple capabilities. Perhaps 
every operation of spirit may be traced to one or more 
of the following well-known capabilities which belong to it> 
viz., consciousness, memory, perception, susceptibility to pas- 
sion, will or self-determination and control over matter. By 
means of the two first, consciousness and memory, spirit 
not only recognizes its own existence and personal identity, 
through its whole course of being, but collects and treasures 



CREATION. 177 

up the history of all that enters into its character. By 
perception, it not only gathers the facts external to itself, 
which fall within the range of its observation, but ascer- 
tains the relations of all the facts acquired by it, whether 
by consciousness or through the senses; and this is 
reasoning. It decides, from these relations, upon the 
character of the facts perceived, their tendency and their 
fitness or unfitness; and this is judgment When the 
relations perceived are of a moral nature, the judgment 
which results is conscience. When the relations perceived 
regard the beauty, sublimity, harmony, &c, of the objects 
contemplated, the judgment that is formed is taste; and, 
so in regard to other objects of* perception, which are 
usually considered distinct faculties or capabilities, they 
may be regarded as operations of the perceptive faculty. 
Susceptibility to passion and the will are the provisions, in 
the constitution of spirit, to secure action, and voluntary 
action. If there be, and we know there are, spiritual 
beings endued with susceptibility to passion and the faculty 
of self-determination, who are not responsible for their self- 
elected course of action, it is because that, for some reason, 
they cannot perceive the moral relations of that course. 
This is the case with all infants and all insane persons of 
mature age. No one thinks of holding either of these 
classes responsible for the moral character of their action ;. 
though they are the subjects of passion, and though they 
resolutely will their own course of action. This is the 
case, because they are deemed incapable of perceiving the 
moral relations of the action upon which they have deter^ 
mined, and for no other reason. Whereas perceptions of 
moral relations, susceptibility to passion and will, wherever 

they co-exist, constitute the spirit which is endowed with. 
12 



178 CREATION. 

them, a responsible agent. That power to control matter 
belongs to spirit, none can doubt, after duly considering 
the control which the mind or spirit in man exerts over 
the material portion of his own nature — his nerves and his 
muscles, and, through these, over the world of matter 
without himself. How this control is exerted, it is idle 
to inquire ; but, the fact itself is so notorious and so indis- 
putable, that, however inscrutable the mode of operation, 
the power is, we suppose, universally admitted to exist. 

What mighty achievements, by means of these few and 
simple capabilities, has spirit — creature-spirit performed. 
To what heights of science, to what depths of discovery, 
to what an extent of knowledge has it attained ! How 
has it dazzled the eye and charmed the imagination, by 
the splendors and the beauty of architecture, sculpture 
and painting! With what heart-melting melodies and 
soul-thrilling harmonies has it, by means of eloquence, 
music and song, enraptured the listening thousands, whose 
happiness it has been to come within the range of their 
influence ! How has it multiplied to man the means of 
subsistence and comfort, and abridged the toils of the con- 
dition in which his rebellion has placed him, in which he 
is doomed, " in the sweat of his face to eat bread all the 
days of his life." What efficient forms of government has 
it instituted, to repress the vices of the refractory and to 
protect society in the enjoyment of its rights and privileges! 
What noble examples of moral virtue, in sages, in states- 
men, in martyrs, and in the poor and unregarded among 
men, has it produced, to display the true and elevated 
dignity to which man, in all kinds of society and in all 
kinds of circumstances, may attain ! How pure, how 
ennobling, how worthy of God and how suited to the 



CREATION. 179 

nature, condition and capabilities of man, the system of 
religion, which, under the instruction of Revelation, has 
been compassed by the spirit of man ! A religion which 
displays not only the Divine perfections, but the nature 
of man, his obligations, his defalcation, his remedy and an 
immortality of retribution, according as he shall or shall 
not profit by the remedy oifered to his acceptance in the 
Gospel. 

These laws of matter and spirit — in other words, these 
properties of matter and these capabilities of spirit, we say 
belong essentially to creation; and were, we suppose, 
imparted to their respective subjects in the act of creation, 
and not superadded to them subsequently to that act 
We, moreover, have advanced the opinion that these pro- 
perties of matter and capabilities of spirit are not of the 
nature of the matter and spirit which they qualify, nor 
abstract laws, impressed by the Creator, and left by Him 
to perform their various functions, in the economy of 
matter and spirit, by their own proper efficiency ; but that 
they are the ever-present energy of the Creator Himself, 
acting in a settled direction, "according to the counsel of 
His own will." We proceed to show: 

III. That creation is the origination of all those organ- 
izations, whether of matter alone, or of matter and spirit 
in combination, which make up the indefinitely varied whole 
of the created universe. 

In our remarks on this proposition, we shall be guided 
by the account of creation which is given us in the Book 
of Genesis — the only account which has any respectable 
claim upon rational attention and confidence. 

And, first, in that authentic record, we read that, "In 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. " — 



180 CREATION. 

Gen, i, 1. We do not suppose that, by the term heaven, 
in this statement, we are to understand that u house not 
made with hands/' in which " there are many mansions," 
that "Holy City, New Jerusalem," that "better country," 
where unfallen and redeemed spirits dwell and rejoice " m 
the presence of God and the Lamb." But, we apprehend, 
the meaning of it to be the aggregate of the heavenly 
bodies, which move and shine above the earth — the sun, 
the planets, the moon and the stars. Of the stars, little 
more is known than that they are bodies of immense mag- 
nitude and at immeasurable distances from the earth ; that 
they are, if not fixed in their positions, so nearly stationary 
that their motions are not appreciable and much less 
calculable, by the most skillful astronomers, aided by the 
most powerful glasses that have been invented, and that 
they, consequently, do not belong to the solar system, nor 
have any dependence on it that can be ascertained, by 
any observation or calculation that has been instituted. 
It is confidently believed that they, as the sun, are lumi- 
nous bodies ; and it is supposed that each of them is a 
center of some system resembling the solar system in all 
essential particulars. In other words, the general opinion 
is that the stars are all suns. It is farther supposed to 
be not improbable that, as the planets and their satellites 
in the solar system, and in all like systems, revolve around 
their respective suns, so these several systems revolve 
around some great center ; and that therefore, no sun, nor 
planet, nor satellite is wholly independent on any other, 
throughout the immense extent of space ; and that, conse- 
quently, the material creation may be regarded as one 
vast, complex whole. We deem all these suppositions 
probable; and, if they suggest the truth, what a stupendous 



CREATION. 181 

organization of worlds do they present to our admiring 
contemplation ! How worthy the power and majesty of 
the infinite Creator ! 

Of the sun, little is known, except that it is a luminous 
body of vast magnitude, some ninety millions of miles 
distant from the earth, and the center around which the 
earth and other planets revolve, with such regularity that 
their motions can be calculated with entire certainty. Of 
the nature of this vast body, whose functions are so vitally 
important in the solar system, nothing is certainly known ; 
and the opinions of astronomers have been widely different 
in regard to it. Some have supposed it to be an ever- 
burning mass ; others have conjectured it to be a vast 
accumulation of electron, while others consider it a dark 
body, surrounded by a luminous atmosphere. All this is 
mere conjecture ; but, it is known that the sun is the 
instrument of illumination and heat to the planets with 
which it is connected. Row it exerts this instrumentality, 
the sagest philosophers cannot determine. They cannot 
tell what is either light or heat. How then should they 
ascertain the manner in which they are supplied by the 
sun ? The former was long supposed to consist of lumi- 
ous particles of matter, of extreme tenuity, radiated by 
the sun and other luminous bodies. But, difficulties 
existed, in this hypothesis, which scarcely could be 
obviated ; and another has been adapted, viz : that light 
is an undulatory motion. An undulatory motion of 
what? we would ask. All undulatory motion does not 
excite the sensation of light. Would it not be more 
becoming in philosophers to state what they know, than 
thus to affect discoveries which have not — which, perhaps, 
never can be made ? Of the nature of heat, as little is 



182 CREATION. 

known as of the nature of light. Much is known, in 
regard to the properties and effects of both ; and, until 
their nature is, if it ever can be, ascertained, should not 
philosophy satisfy itself with the development and mani- 
festation of these ? We may not longer dwell upon this 
point interesting as it is, but must proceed to other 
particulars. 

The moon is a satellite of the earth. Other planets have 
similar attendants, which accompany them as the moon 
does the earth, in their revolutions around the sun, per- 
forming revolutions around their proper planets, in orbits 
of their own, as well as upon their several axes. It ia 
well ascertained that the light of the moon, considerable 
as it is, is not produced by that body, but is the reflected 
light of the sun. Viewed only in relation to the office of 
reflecting such an amount of light to our earth as she 
does, the moon is of great importance. But there are 
other important influences exerted by this interesting 
satellite. To a great extent the tides of seas and oceans, 
so important in navigation, and probably not less so to the 
healthfulness of our globe, are produced by her influence. 
Besides, we have no doubt that she exerts an important 
influence on meteorological phenomena, and thereby upon 
both vegetable and animal economy. 

2. The earth, to man the most interesting of all the 
bodies which constitute the solar system, was, we are 
informed, in Gen. i, 2, " Without form and void, and dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep," when it was created. 
It contained doubtless, however, every particle of matter, 
while in this crude state, which belonged to it after it was 
reduced to order. It was, therefore, competent to enter 
into the organization of the solar system; as it possessed, 



CREATION. 183 

in the former state, the same amount of gravitation, as in 
the latter. What gravitation is, we know not ; but, by it 
is expressed the tendency of one mass of matter towards 
another. The influence by which this tendency is pro- 
duced is an absolute mystery ; but that the tendency 
exists, in a manner so entirely uniform that its measure 
can be calculated with exact certainty, is a well-known 
fact ; and this tendency, acting upon the vis inertia of 
matter, explains the various motions of the vast bodies 
which constitute the solar system. The gravitating ten- 
dency of matter would draw all bodies toward each other 
in straight lines ; but the vis inertice would continue the 
motion of the matter in the direction in which it was 
originally impelled. If, then, the original direction of the 
bodies which revolve around the sun were, as we believe 
it to have been, horizontal to the sun, the effect of these 
two influences would be, if there were no interfering 
influences, that those bodies would revolve about the sun 
in orbits perfectly circular. But, there being such inter- 
fering influences exerted, the fact is that the orbits of the 
planets are not precisely circular. Besides the revolution 
around the sun, every planet performs a revolution upon 
its own axis, from west to east ; and thus rolls round its 
annual course. The revolution around the sun, produces 
the year of the planet, and the revolution upon its own 
axis, its day. The axis of the earth is not horizontal to 
the sun — if it were, there would be no variation of the 
climate at any given point on the earth's surface ; but 
it is inclined several degrees towards the perpendicular. 
This inclination occasions a change in the position of 
every part of the earth's surface in relation to the sun, 
and produces those vicissitudes which we denominate 



184 CREATION. 

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. For several 
thousand years these various revolutions have been going 
on, with such a degree of exactness and regularity, that 
the astronomer can calculate, with entire certainty, the 
exact position of any of the known bodies constituting the 
solar system, at any minute of any day in that long lapse 
of time. No horological instrument, of human construc- 
tion ever performed its functions, for even one month, 
with anything like the exactitude with which these im- 
mense bodies have been rolling around their various 
orbits, through thousands of years. Here is wisdom in 
design, skill in contrivance and power in execution which 
could be found in the Infinite alone! Here is an orga- 
nization, with which the boasted inventions of man will 
bear no adequate comparison ! 

But, let us fix our attention, more especially, upon the 
Earth. When spoken of generally, it includes in the idea 
intended to be expressed, both land and water — continents 
and islands, oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. But, the land 
and water were not separated from each other in the first 
act of creation. Darkness, too, enveloped this mass of 
confused materials. " And the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters." From this it would seem that, 
if the whole of the globe was not a mixture of earth and 
water, with the watery particles, as of less specific gravity 
than those of earth, on the surface, the solid portion of 
the globe was completely submerged. Of the motion of the 
Spirit of God, upon the face of the waters, we know and 
can know nothing ; but in regard to the object of that 
motion, there can be little doubt or question — it was, 
doubtless, the establishment of order in the now chaotic 
mass. It was now for Him to put into operation those 



CREATION. 185 







elective affinities which should combine into masses, metals, 
stones, earths and gasses, which were to enter into the 
composition of the solid portions of the globe; and to 
dispose each in its appropriate position. 

3. Up to this time light had not visited the earth, if 
indeed light at all existed. We have already said that 
we know absolutely nothing of the nature of light ; and 
hence, we cannot infer that as the sun which is noiv the 
instrument of illumination to our earth, was then the 
center of the solar system; therefore, light must have 
existed. We doubt the possibility of making it apparent 
that light existed before the sublime commandment of the 
Creator spake it into being ; and, whether, till He endued 
the sun with the capability of pouring a flood of inexhaus- 
tible light upon the worlds dependent upon His ministry, 
He was not involved in as gross darkness as was the earth 
itself. Be this as it may, this is certain — that light had 
not shed its genial influence upon the earth, when this 
command was given forth. If it previously existed, and 
had been witheld from the earth by some opaque obstruc- 
tion, that obstruction was removed by the almighty flat ; 
and the gloom of the previously perpetual night vanished 
"before the brightness of its coming." We, however, are 
among those who adopt the opinion that light was created 
by the command, "Let there be light!" and, not that 
vapors or clouds, which had previously interposed between 
the sun and the earth, were dissipated by natural causes, 
acting consentaneously with that command. 

4. The next step in the creation or formation of our 
earth, with its immediate appendages, was the calling of 
the firmament into existence. "And God said, let there 
be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide 



186 CREATION. 

the waters from the waters. And God made the firma- 
ment, and divided the waters which were under the 
firmament, from the waters which were above the firma- 
ment." We suppose that by the term firmament, we are 
to understand the atmosphere. The waters, which are 
rarified by heat into the form of vapor, are held in suspen- 
sion in the superior regions of the atmosphere ; until, 
condensed by cold or precipitated by electricity, they 
descend to the earth, in the form of dew or rain, to moisten 
and fertilize the soil, and to supply the upland regions of 
the earth with water, in the form of lakes, springs, rivulets 
and rivers. The firmament, or atmosphere, is the great 
magazine of meteoric agencies, by which the earth is 
rendered productive of vegetation, and rendered habitable 
by the various tribes of animals which live upon its 
surface. It is, moreover, the great instrument of sound — 
the chord whose vibrations give utterance to all the varied 
notes of nature's mighty concert. By its means, is heard 
the eloquence of the orator and the melody of the 
musician — the whisper of the zephyr and the roar of the 
thunder. The instruction and the pleasure of conversation 
could not be enjoyed without its intervention. What is 
most important of all, perhaps, in the uses of the atmos- 
phere, is that by means of respiration, it imparts vitality 
to the blood, upon which the continuance of life is con- 
stantly and absolutely dependent. The atmosphere is so 
important in the economy of the earth, that a whole day 
in the creative process was appropriated to its production 
and organization, as the previous day had been to the 
creation of light, and to the establishment of the diurnal 
revolution of the earth, producing the vicissitudes of day 
and night 



CREATION. 187 

5. On the third day of creation the waters, previously 
it would seem, either mingled with or overspreading the 
earth, are gathered together and confined within proper 
limits — the Almighty Creator saying to them, "Thus far 
shall ye come and no farther, and here shall your proud 
waves be stayed." Who shall adequately conceive of this 
stupendous operation ? How immense the reservoir, into 
which the waters were to be collected ! How numerous, 
serpentine, capacious and extended the channels which 
were to carry off from the land into this vast reservoir, 
the waters with which the land was flooded ! But " God 
spake and it was done." "God said, let the waters under 
heaven be gathered unto one place, and let the dry land 
appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land 
earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He 
seas." Immediately, upon the Divine command, down 
sunk more than half the earth's surface, in many parts of 
it to unfathomable depths. From all portions not thus 
depressed, rushed the waters under the whole heavens ; 
till by suitable drains, were drawn together, in oceans 
capacious basins, the superfluous waters of the whole earth, 
and the dry land emerged with mountain and valley, hill 
and dale, diversifying its face, to be the proper scene of 
those vegetable and animal organizations, with which the 
All-wise Creator was about to adorn and people its vast 
area. The sea has been called the wide waste of waters. 
Nothing could be more unjust ; for, besides that the sea 
is occupied by innumerable tribes of sensuous beings, 
whose constitutions are adapted to the circumstances in 
which they are placed, is it not notorious that, without 
such a surface as is spread out by the seas, evaporation, 
sufficient to the purpose of watering the earth, by dews 



188 CREATION. 

and rains, would be impracticable ; and earth, throughout 
its whole extent, would be sterile and arid as the deserts 
of Sahara? Again, how greatly has the intercourse, 
between the most distant parts of the globe been facili- 
tated by the existence of this highway of nations ! A 
waste of waters! Nay, verily, but a scene of abundant and 
varied life and enjoyment — a reservoir, whence the earth 
is irrigated and rendered fruitful — the artery of social 
existence — the great thoroughfare of commerce! To 
render it the more suitable for this latter purpose, as well 
as to prevent noxious exhalations, from its immensely 
extended surface, the water of the seas is strongly impreg- 
nated with salts, which increase its buoyancy and lessen 
its tendency to stagnation and decomposition. Well might 
the psalmist adoringly exclaim, "In wisdom hast thou 
made them all ! — so is this great and wide sea ; wherein 
are things creeping innumerable, both small and great 
beasts. There go the ships 1" Such, and so important 
is the sea ! 

6. On this same third day of creation, the earth or dry 
land was made to produce the various vegetable tribes, 
which adorn the earth, and minister in so important a 
manner to the support and comfort of the sensuous 
creatures which roam or dwell upon its surface. Nutritious 
grass, from which the grazing families of animal existence 
derive subsistence and pleasure — herbs, embracing the 
various grain-plants, yielding seed, one or the other, or 
both, calculated either for food, pleasure or medicine — 
trees, bearing fruit, in which was contained the seed neces- 
sary for the propagation of trees of like kind. Then was 
spread out the beautiful carpet of green, variegated with 
flowers o£ every hue, and sending up delicious fragrance 



CREATION. 189 

to regale the senses of beings capable of such gratification ; 
then rose the shrub, in lowly beauty, by the side of the 
stately pine, the majestic oak, the beautiful cedar and the 
graceful palm. Then, too, the laden boughs, of herb, 
shrub and tree, displayed their various fruits, rich, delicious 
and nutritive — the bounty of a Providence abundant in 
resources, and as munificent as abundant in resources. 
Every variety of taste is catered to, in this provision. 
Every sense, capable of being served by such ministry, is 
provided with appropriate gratification, in these fruits of 
the field and of the forest. Feeling, and smell, and taste, 
and sight are as intensely regaled, as if pleasure were the 
only object of the provision, instead of being a mere 
accessary to the more important purpose of perpetuating 
existence. 

7. We have already remarked that the sun is, directly, 
and the moon, ly the reflection of the sun's rays, indirectly, 
the great instruments of enlightening the earth ; and, that 
the revolution of the earth on its own axis occasions the 
vicissitudes of day and night. We have supposed, more- 
over, that when the heaven and the earth were created, 
they were endued with those properties which belong to 
matter; and that, consequently, the various revolutions 
of the solar system went into immediate operation at the 
time of creation. We know, also, that light was called 
into existence on the first day of the creation. How, 
then, are we to account for the fact that the sun and moon 
were made the instruments of illuminating the earth — 
more properly, how are we to account for the fact that the 
sun shed not his light upon the earth and the moon, until 
the fourth day ? Did we know the nature of light, and by 
what means the sun illuminates the planets in the solar 



190 CREATION. 

system, and their satellites, we might possibly be able to 
answer this question ; but, as we do not know either the 
one or the other, we dare hardly venture even a conjec- 
tural reply to it. But, may we not, without presumption, 
hazard the supposition that, perhaps the sun was not 
invested with the property, appendage, or whatever it is, 
which renders him the instrument of illumination to the 
inferior bodies with which he is connected, until the fourth 
day of the creative process ? If this be not the true 
solution of the problem, we confess to an utter inability 
to conceive' of any other. Light existed previously to the 
ordering of the sun's instrumentality in the illumination 
of the earth and other similarly situated bodies; but, 
though the revolution of the earth on its axis brought the 
hours in regular succession, with the corresponding vicis- 
situdes of light and darkness, we know that the light 
enjoyed was not from the sun. Whence it was we know 
not, nor can we determine whether it was electric or phos- 
phorescent, or what was its nature. This only do we know, 
that until the fourth day, the sun was not established as 
the source of light to the earth by day, nor the moon as 
the principal instrument of that inferior degree of light, by 
which the darkness of night is mitigated. Is it not pro- 
bable that, if the stars be suns to other systems of worlds, 
they received their great commissions to illuminate their 
respective dependents at the same time that our sun 
received his ? This seems to be intimated, when, in the 
history of the fourth day's work, it is said " He made the 
stars" as well as " made the sun to give light by day, and 
the moon to give light by night." 

The conclusion of the fourth day beheld a beauteous 
world, diversified by land and water; mountain and valley, 



CREATION. 191 

hill and dale, adorned in variegated beauty and splendor; 
grass and herb, shrub and tree, flower and fruit over- 
spreading the face of the Earth, with variety, beauty and 
ample provision for the gratification of smell and taste. 
This Earth, so beauteous, was wrapped within the folds 
of the many-propertied atmosphere — the nutriment of 
life and fertility, and the instrument of sound. And, 
upon this lovely habitation, fitted up for the accominoda- 
tion of animal existence, was poured, in the clay-time, a 
flood of solar light, to reveal the latent beauties of the 
world, in all their loveliness, and in all their splendor; 
while, in the night-season, was shed down, upon those 
beauties, a paler, softer light, investing them with a 
character to impress the heart with tenderness and soul- 
subduing and hearfc-purifying awe. But, as yet, these 
ample provisions were unappropriated. No beings, with 
capacities to put them to use, were yet in existence. But, 
thus it was not to continue. The infinitely wise and good 
Being, who had fitted up this glorious habitation, would 
not, could not, without a just imputation of folly, have left 
it unoccupied. It would have been to spread a sumptuous 
feast, of which there were to be no partakers. Such waste 
of means, such mal-appropriation of benefits would have 
been grossly incongruous to the Divine character. Hence, 
8. On the fifth clay of the creation, when all needful for 
their reception, accommodation and enjoyment of existence 
had been prepared, animals, endowed with sensibility, and 
senses suited to the capacities of enjoyment, belonging to 
their respective places in the extended scale of sensuous 
beings, were called into existence, by the omnific word of 
the Creator. Of the various tribes of animals, called into 
being on the fifth day, we cannot be expected to give a 



192 CREATION. 

description, or even a catalogue. They were those which 
swim in the waters, and those which fly in the air. From the 
scarcely animalized coral and sponge-producing organiza- 
tions, through all the various forms and grades of testacea, 
Crustacea, articulata and vertebrata, up to the whale, which, 
for superior organization, as well as for size, may be con- 
sidered the superior inhabitant of the waters, we see a 
regularly ascending scale of animal existence, with appro- 
priate endowments in every class in the ascending series. 
So, also, from the ephemeral insect, that flaunts its hour 
in the evening sunbeam, to the condor, magnificent in 
strength and size, to the bird of paradise and the peafowl, 
splendid in their beauty of plumage, and to the nightingale 
and the mocking-bird, the sweetest of nature's songsters, 
scarcely can imagination conceive of a chasm in the scale 
of winged existence. Thus, on the fifth day, were the 
waters and the air peopled with inhabitants, suited precisely 
to the positions they were intended to occupy, endlessly 
varied in form, appetence and capacity, and constituting, in 
the aggregate, an adequate population for the departments 
of the world in. which they were to have their habitations. 
9. On the sixth day, the earth itself was peopled, with 
animal existences, from an exceedingly low grade of being, 
up to the highest glory of God's work on earth. The 
creeping thing — - the reptile, that hides itself in the dust, 
the mammalia, in their thousands of tribes, ascending, by 
regular and almost imperceptible gradations, from the 
mouse to the mammoth ; from the timid hare, to the mag- 
nanimous lion; from the stupid sloth, to the sagacious 
elephant, and that human caricature, the witty and mis- 
chievous monkey. In grade after grade, in the ascending 
series, the organization is seen to be more and still more 



CREATION. 193 

perfect, the development to be more expanded, the 
approximation of the inferior creatures to unapproachable 
humanity nearer. No space, in the scale, is left, where 
the acutest observer could find room for a new order of 
beings. Genus presses on genus, species run into species 
so intimately that it is difficult to trace the lines that 
divide them from each other. We speak of inferior ani- 
mals; for, between the most elevated ranks of these and 
man there are lines of distinction, so broad and strongly 
marked, that there can be no difficulty in classing them 
apart. We do not intend to say that man is distinguished 
from other animals by the faculty of reason. We do not 
believe that he is : but, we do mean to say that man alone 
gives any evidence of religious or moral perception or 
capacity. Nor are there any other races, of terrestrial 
creatures, which have ever afforded the slightest evidence 
that they were endowed with the capability of continuous 
improvement in Science or Art. They may reason — 
we think there is invincible proof that many of them, at 
least, do reason ; but their reasonings are upon their own 
sensations alone. They do not appear to be capable of 
either abstraction or taking into the scope of their reason- 
ing the experience of others. Hence, all they learn has 
sole reference to what concerns their own proper and 
individual interest — derives no aid from any preceding 
generations of their species, nor serves any purpose of 
enlightening those which are to come after them. More- 
over, there is no instance on record, we believe, of one- 
step, in either Science or Art, having been suggested, to 
any of the inferior animals, by what they had been taught. 
The point to which their teacher leads them, is never 
exceeded, by the slightest advance on their part. These 

13 



194 CREATION. 

things show important differences, between man and the 
inferior animals — differences not accidental, but funda- 
mental in their respective constitutions. 

There are, however, some things which are common to 
all animals, man included. One of these is life. What 
life is, who shall presume to say ? And, yet, what is more 
familiar to our observation and our thoughts than life ? It 
is not organization in its most perfect state. This is evi- 
dent, from the fact that bodies, recently deprived of life, 
can, by means of a galvanic current, be made to perform 
the muscular functions which, in the living subject, were 
under the control of life. It is not galvanism, electricity 
nor heat; for, though the first of these can produce mus- 
cular motion, in a subject recently deprived of life, neither 
it, nor any, nor all of these subtile fluids can produce the 
phenomena of life. It is not the nervous fluid, nor the 
nervous system; for it is by acting on these, that gal- 
vanism gives play to the muscles of the dead. What it 
is, no physiologist has yet discovered; and we doubt 
whether any one ever will penetrate its profound mystery. 

Sensibility, or the capability of sensation, is another 
common property of animal nature. No animal, whose 
constitution is within the scope of human scrutiny, is des- 
titute of this property. Indeed, we cannot conceive of 
animal life where it is wanting. This connects the indi- 
vidual existence with the surrounding world; and, it is 
alike important to the safety and the subsistence of the 
animal which is endowed with it. Its scope may be 
extremely limited, or immensely extended; but it would 
seem that, to an extent commensurate with the wants of 
the animal, it is a necessity of its nature. 

Thought, too, we believe to be common to animals. It 



CREATION. 195 

certainly is so, in the case of all animals whose develop- 
ments are sufficiently prominent to be the objects of human 
investigation. As in all else, so in thought, the endow- 
ment of each class of animals is adapted to the wants of 
the class ; and, we suppose, that in some, this is exceedingly 



Passion, likewise, is common to all animals, whose capa- 
bilities we are able to ascertain. They evince desire and 
aversion, anger and fear, and joy and sorrow, as the effects 
of corresponding influences exerted upon them. 

They have also volition or will. The lowest ranks of 
animals, whose actions can be traced by man, elect their 
own course of action as freely and independently as man 
himself. In all these endowments, animals generally have 
a common property ; and, they may, therefore, be con- 
sidered as universal attributes of animal nature, if not 
essential elements in the constitution of that nature. 

Of the creation of man, and of his position in the scale 
of creature-existence, we do not now intend to treat par- 
ticularly, having it in purpose to devote an entire discourse 
hereafter to these subjects. 

Before we conclude this discourse, it may be proper to 
notice briefly the principal theories of creation which have 
obtained currency among thinking men. We do not deem 
it necessary to bestow any attention on any theory of the 
heavens and earth, which does not proceed upon the fun- 
damental idea of a Creator. In our view, there is such 
flagrant absurdity in the supposition, that these exist, in 
such vast magnificence, order, adaptation of means to ends 
and endless variety, with no wisdom to have planned them, 
no skill to have arranged them, no power to have produced 
them, that it would be a waste of time and an affront upon 



196 CREATION. 

logic, to argue against it. The theories we shall notice, 
equally recognize a Creator; and, so far as this point is 
concerned, are equally within the pale of reason and 
religion. They are three ; 

(1.) That spirit and matter, in all its various departments, 
were created, and the laws governing all the departments 
belonging to them, impressed upon them by the Creator. 
This spirit and matter were, however, left by the Creator 
in a state utterly without order, to work out, by means of 
the laws impressed upon them, the separations, combina- 
tions and arrangements which were to result in the 
organization of the solar system, the disposition of the 
stellar bodies, the arrangement of the earth into land and 
water, and the production of its minerals, vegetables and 
animals. The date of creation is, by this theory, thrown 
back indefinitely — beyond even the boldest flight of 
imagination. This theory is called the development-theory, 
(2.) The second theory resembles the first in many 
particulars, but differs from it, in supposing that, the 
various organizations of the created universe, instead of 
being developed by natural law, were produced by a 
number of creations, with vast intervals between them, 
say of a thousand or thousands of years — of these crea- 
tions, we see each rising above that which preceded it, in 
the perfection of its productions; till the solar system, as 
it now is, the earth and its present various races of inhabi- 
tants, were the glorious results of the final act in the great 
drama of creation. This theory is attempted to be recon- 
ciled with the Mosiac account of creation, by supposing 
that day, in that account, does not mean, as it now does, 
a lapse of twenty-four hours, but a period of indefinite 
duration. Both these theories owe their existence, we 



CREATION. 197 

believe to — they certainly receive thek principal support 
from — geological phenomena. 

(3.) The third theory is founded upon a literal under- 
standing of the Mosaic account of creation ; and suppose 
that, in one hundred and fourty-four hours, God created the 
matter and spirit of the heavens and the earth; gave laws 
to both ; reduced to the order which was to continue, so 
long as they should exist, the heavens and the earth ; 
arranged the earth into land and water, and furnished it 
with minerals, vegetables and animals, in all essential 
particulars, as it is now furnished. 

We are unable to receive the first of these theories, if 
for no other reason, because that, in the lapse of forty 
centuries or more, during which the operations of nature 
have been observed, with intense curiosity and shrewd 
intelligence, not the slightest tendency to such develop- 
ments, as the theory supposes, have ever been detected; 
and, we deem it hardly reasonable to suppose that the 
energy, to which this theory ascribes such vast and various 
operations, has wholly exhausted itself, or, that, if still in 
operation, it should so entirely have eluded the scrutiny 
of naturalists for such a series of centuries. The changes, 
which are perpetually going on throughout nature, produce 
no new form of existence, nor advance an inferior nature 
to one of a higher order. True, the grub becomes a 
chrysalis, and the chrysalis becomes a butterfly ; but, then, 
the egg of the butterfly produces the grub again; and, 
this round is repeated, without any improvement of the 
species, and without the production of any new form of 
existence. The absence of all discoverable tendency in 
Nature, to such developments as are supposed by this 
theory, we regard as fatal to its claims upon rational con- 



198 CREATION. 

fidence; and, we, therefore, dismiss it, without further 
consideration. 

We cannot receive the second theory, because it is 
inconsistent with what we understand to be the plain, 
untortured signification of the Mosaic account of creation ; 
and, because there is, as we think, no fact brought to light, 
either by geological discoveries or otherwise, which ren- 
ders a less natural interpretation of that account neces- 
sary. Supposing creation completed in one hundred and 
forty-four hours, fifty-eight and a half centuries ago, we 
conceive that there has been time and means for every 
change in the structure of the earth. We know that both 
vegetable and animal substances are fossilized with great 
rapidity: a few years — not centuries — being sufficient 
for the purpose. The argument from the position of the 
Saurian fossils and their neighboring vegetable fossils, 
and the absence, from that position, of the remains of man 
and of other mammalia, is utterly untenable, we think ; 
because the regions inhabited by these Saurians and pro- 
ducing these vegetables, were manifestly unsuited to man, 
or to any of the other tribes of mammalia, except a very 
few, which either inhabit the waters or are amphibious. 
Besides, the regions of the earth, which have been exam- 
ined by geologists, are remote from the primitive residence 
of the human race, and, probably, we think, from the 
early range of the higher orders of inferior mammalia. If 
it were certain, as most surely it is not, that the Saurian 
and other earliest subjects of fossilization, were extinct, 
this would by no means prove their pre-Adamite exist- 
ence. Other races, confessedly belonging to the present 
constitution of things, are probably extinct, as, for instance, 
the Mastodon. The immense deposits of mineral coal, 



CREATION. 199 

which are found scattered over the globe, are relied upon 
as evidence of an antiquity in the earth, far greater than 
is consistent with the Adamite era of creation. But, the 
whole weight of this evidence depends upon an assumption 
which we esteem not only gratuitous but erroneous — 
namely, that this coal is fossilized vegetable matter. 
Allowing this assumption to be correct, we readily admit 
that millions of years would have been scarcely sufficient 
to produce, collect together and fossilize such immense 
quantities of vegetable substances as were necessary to 
form the coal-deposits in England, in Pennsylvania and 
other regions of the earth. The only ground, we believe, 
on which the assumed vegetable origin of coal finds any 
thing like support, is the fact, that vegetable matter has 
been found in coal regions, more or less fossilized. How 
much more rational, as it appears to us, would be the 
inference, from this fact, that vegetable matter was 
casually present, in the chemical process by which coal 
was produced ; as the nail, in California, was present, in 
the chemical formation of the auriferous quartz, in which 
it was found imbedded. That the chemical combination 
of the proper elementary earths^ metals, gasses and salts, 
produce many, perhaps most, of the minerals which are 
found by geological research, will not, we suppose, be 
questioned by any well-informed person at this day ; and, 
why should coal be regarded as an exception ? Has the 
analysis of that mineral brought to light any fact which 
would forbid the supposition of its chemical formation? 
And, if not, is it not far more probable that it was thus 
formed, than that masses of vegetable matter, in such 
almost inconceivable quantities, should have accumulated, 
in the coal-regions, as would have been sufficient, on the 



200 CREATION. 

fossilization theory ? But, we cannot engage in the dis- 
cussion of this theory at greater length — our limits forbid 
our doing so. Enough has been said to show the opinion 
we entertain, and to indicate the line of thought by which 
that opinion has been reached. We must, therefore, dis- 
miss this point, and proceed to remark that we heartily 
embrace the third of the theories we have specified ; and, 

3. This we do, because, as we have already stated, we 
consider it in accordance with the plain, unsophisticated 
meaning of the Mosaic account of creation. That it is 
so, will, we think, be disputed by no one ; and, we con- 
sider it extremely hazardous, as well as blameworthy, to 
depart from the literal signification of Scripture-language, 
unless where such signification is clearly opposed to truth. 
Moreover : to us it appears more worthy the character of 
the Creater, with whom " one day is as a thousand years," 
to create, at once, a perfect universe, than to create such 
a universe, piece-meal, during the lapse of innumerable 
centuries. But, we have not time to dwell upon the 
subject. 

But, whether this, or either of the other theories of 
creation, which we have considered, be the true one, the 
main facts are the same. According to all these theories, 
matter is not eternal, but was created by an Eternal 
Being. So, also, spirit was brought into existence by 
Him. He gave laws to both. By His wisdom was 
planned the complicated, but harmonious system of the 
heavens and the earth, and the innumerable forms of 
mineral, vegetable and animal existence, which adorn and 
people the waters and the dry land of our noble planet. 
And, as it was His wisdom which planned all these won- 
ders, so it was His power, directly or indirectly exerted, 



CREATION. 201 

that called them all from nothing into existence. How- 
vast such wisdom ! How inconceivably great such power ! 
Well might Paul and Barnabas claim for the Being, thus 
endowed, the exclusive worship of all rational creatures. 
Addressed to Him, how appropriate the adoring anthem 
of the heavenly hosts, as heard by the inspired John, in 
the desolate Island of his exile, — " Great and marvellous 
are Thy works, Lord God Almighty !" Amen ! Let all 
mem everywhere, respond, 'Amen V 



DISCOURSE V. 

OF THE CREATION OF MAN, AND OF HIS OBLIGATIONS TO 

THE CREATOR. 

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created ne him : 
male and female created He them. And God blessed them. — Gen. i, 27. 28. 

We have now contemplated the origination of spirit and 
matter — the material, of the created universe, by the One 
self-existent Being. We have spoken of the laws estab- 
lished by the Creator for their regulation and government. 
We have also had under consideration the organizations, 
into which the Creator had disposed the Matter and Spirit, 
which He called into existence, in the formation of the 
heavens and the earth — particularly in the establishment 
of the Solar System. Our attention has been especially 
drawn to the Earth — its diversified surface, its complex 
revolutions and its embracing atmosphere ; with its indefi- 
nitely varied productions and animal occupants. Here, we 
have seen combined beauty, grandeur and vast capabilities 
to minister enjoyment, to both sensuous and intellectual 
susceptibilities. But, thus far, no creature was upon Earth, 
who could appreciate the wisdom, the benevolence and the 
power displayed in the production of so fair a world — a 
habitation so well adapted to the endlessly varied crea- 
tures, who were to find their home, their subsistence and 
their enjoyment within its ample arrangements; or, who 

202 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 203 

could render, to the bounteous Provider, the homage and 
the gratitude which His munificence rendered Him justly 
entitled. Such a creature must have, in addition to animal 
instincts, appetites and passions, and to the low grade of 
intellect which is capable only of scanning and regulating 
the interests of the individual and the hour, a capacity to 
draw upon the facts and experience of the past, for 
instruction, in regard to the present and the future — to 
trace effects to their causes — to analyze complex sub- 
jects — to combine disjected parts into a symmetrical 
whole — and to reason, from abstract principles or propo- 
sitions, to conclusions as clear and as reliable as ocular 
phenomena. He must, moreover, and especially, be able 
to perceive the true, the right and the good, in morals. 
He must be able to understand the source, the nature and 
the force of moral obligation; and, by the constitution of 
his nature, must be capable of moral performance. He 
must, consequently, be capable of knowing his Creator, 
of understanding the relation in which he stands to that 
Creator, the obligation, resulting from that relation, and 
the requirements, which are to regulate his conduct under 
that obligation, as they shall be made known to him, 
whether by permanent laws, or by isolated intimations of 
the Divine will. Such a creature, we repeat, did not exist 
among all the tribes of animated existence with which, as 
we have seen, God had peopled the waters, the air and the 
earth. But, the creation of Man supplied this important 
desideratum. Of this creation, we now proceed to speak; 
and, we shall consider, 

I. The indications given by the Creator of the superior 
importance which He attached to the creation of man, over 
that of all other terrestrial creatures: 



204 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

II. The nature, capabilities and character of man, when 
created; 

III. The purpose of God, in the creation of man; and, 

IV. The obligation of man to his Creator, resulting 
from the fact of his creation. 

I. We are to consider, first, The indications given by 
the Creator of the superior importance which He attached 
to the creation of man, over that of all other terrestrial 
creatures; and, 

1. In no other department of creation, have we any 
intimation that there was anything like Divine consulta- 
tion or announcement of purpose. No preconcerted plan 
for the creation "of the heavens and the earth" is 
recorded — none for enwrapping the earth in the ample 
folds of the " firmament " or atmosphere — none for per- 
vading the universe with the radiant splendors and all- 
revealing rays of "light" — none for "separating the 
waters and earth" of this terraqueous globe — none for 
clothing earth's surface with "grass, and herb, and tree;" 
whose verdure, and flowers, and fruits should minister to 
the pleasure and the subsistence of its sensuous and intel- 
lectual inhabitants — nor any for peopling the waters with 
myriad forms of life and capacities for enjoyment; for 
winging the air with forms of beauty and strength, with 
sweetness of note and splendor of plumage indefinitely 
varied, or for placing upon the earth itself, inhabitants 
innumerable, and endlessly diversified in form and capacity, 
from the most insignificant reptile, that winds its sordid 
way through the dust, to the noblest species of the mam- 
malia, that proudly roam through the forest, free, fearless 
and independent. But, when man was to be created, the 
purpose was thus announced by God : — " Let us make man 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 205 

in our image and after our likeness," said God. This, by 
the way, is by no means a slight confirmation of the doc- 
trine of the Trinity in the Divine existence, elsewhere 
clearly taught by Revelation. This announcement, of the 
purpose to create man, in a manner to indicate that it was 
the result of consultation, on the part of the Divine 
Persons in the Godhead, exclusive, as it is, of every other 
step in the creative process, certainly indicates that, in 
the Divine estimation, the creation of man was of superior 
importance to that of any other portion of the stupendous 
work of creation. 

2. In no other part of creation but that of man, have 
we any account of the modus operandi. We have only a 
simple statement of the fact that u God created," or that 
He said, " Let there be light" — " Let there be a firma- 
ment," etc. But the process of man's creation is described, 
not, it is true, with much particularity, but with sufficient 
to warrant a sacred writer in saying, " Thy hands have 
made me and fashioned me together round about." The 
account we have of the creation of man is as follows: 
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man 
became a living soul." And, " The Lord God caused a 
deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. He took 
one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, 
made He a woman." Thus was man, male and female, 
created by three several and distinct operations. His 
body was formed of the dust of the ground, by the hands 
of God. The breath of life was breathed into his nostrils 
and, from man, so formed and so animated, a part was 
taken, a rib, of which was made a woman. These facts are 



206 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

abundantly sufficient, we think, to establish the affirmative 
of the proposition we have been considering, viz : that the 
indications given l?y the Creator evince that He attached 
a superior importance to the creation of man, over that of 
all other terrestrial creatures ; and, we shall see that there 
was just ground for His attaching this superior importance 
to that creation, when we consider, 

II. The nature, capabilities and character of man, when 
he was created. His nature was a complex nature, physical 
and spiritual, — spiritual in a sense far beyond and above 
the measure in which the nature of any of the inferior 
creatures may be regarded as spiritual. 

(1.) Of the physical nature of man, we need say but 
little ; as it differs, most probably, only in the laws of its 
peculiar organization, from the physical natures of other 
and inferior animals. Considered apart from the spirit of 
life, by which it is animated, it is simple matter, subject 
to all its laws and laboring under all its disabilities. Its 
organization is, however, a most interesting subject of 
investigation, as it not only is vastly curious, but displays 
in a striking manner, the wisdom and benevolent forecast 
of the Creator. But the scope of our design does not 
embrace the chemical, anatomical and physiological phe- 
nomena of the human frame. And, therefore, were we 
competent, as we certainly are not, to present an adequate 
representation of them, we should not consider ourselves 
warranted in doing so on the present occasion. We will 
remark, however, that with a speed vastly inferior to that 
of very many of the inferior creatures, and with equally 
inferior strength and personal means of defense and annoy- 
ance, to a great number of them, man, by the single 
organic advantage of a hand, under the guidance of a 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 207 

superior intellect, is able to render the fleetness and 
strength of those creatures abortive, and often subservient 
to his own purposes. All inferior animals are provided 
by the organic law of their natures with suitable clothing 
for the climates in which they are respectively intended 
to have their habitations; while man, though thrown 
naked into the world, is enabled by the dexterity of this 
important member, to provide for himself clothing suited 
to any climate in which he may choose to take up his 
abode, or for transitions through the various climates on 
the face of the globe, in the most expeditious modes of 
travel, whether by land or water — whether impelled on his 
way by winds and currents, or by the power of steam, or 
even by the impulse of an agency still more energetic. 
By means of this member man is enabled to form and to 
use implements of industry, from a cambric needle to a 
steam engine of any required force ; by which he can 
centuple his individual capability in any branch of profit- 
able occupation, whether mechanical, mercantile or agri- 
cultural. Add to this, that by the hand are constructed 
and used the instruments whereby science is enabled to 
measure the earth, map the visible heavens, detect the 
existence of luminous bodies, far beyond the unassisted 
ken of the most sharp-sighted gazer upon the vaulted 
firmament extended above our earth, and to give body 
and permanence to the thoughts of the mind and to the 
words of the lips. This last achievement of the hand of 
man binds together the past, the present and the future ; 
and renders each succeeding generation heir to all those 
which preceded it, in the most important and imperishable 
of all the advantages of which they could boast. Enough 
has been exhibited, we suppose, to render it evident that. 



208 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

in the hand, man has an advantage, in physical organiza- 
tion, which places him vastly above all other animals. 

Another important peculiarity, in the physical constitu- 
tion of man, is the power of speech. Most other animals 
can, indeed, by means of inarticulate sounds, communicate 
intelligibly, in a very few particulars; but, to man alone is 
given the power, by means of modulated sounds, to com- 
municate whatever thought may be in his mind, to those 
with whom he is in conventional agreement in regard to 
the meaning attached to such sounds. Upon this depends, 
to a very great extent, the advantages and the enjoyments 
of society, and, especially, the increase of every species 
of knowledge. The discoveries, inventions and improve- 
ments of each individual become, by means of speech, the 
property of every individual in his society, who chooses 
to be at the trouble of appropriating it to himself; and, 
thus, every individual, of a society of twenty, one hun- 
dred or one thousand, may, in a given length of time, 
acquire all the knowledge of all the individuals composing 
that society : whereas, without communication by speech, 
the whole of that society would acquire less knowledge than 
the one-twentieth, one-hundredth or one-thousandth part 
of what has been acquired by every individual composing 
the society in which such communication exists. How 
immensely does this power or faculty elevate man above 
every other tribe of animated beings upon earth. 

(2.) But, if advantages, in physical organization, establish 
the superiority of man over ail other mundane creatures, 
his spiritual, i. e. his intellectual and moral nature and 
capacities exhibit that superiority still more eminently. 
We have, heretofore, intimated an opinion that spirit is a 
constituent in all animal existence, and that a measure of 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 209 

intellect, in some exceedingly small certainly, belongs to 
them all. Thought and knowledge are predicable of intel- 
lect only; and, we know no class of animals, with sufficient 
intimacy to warrant us in pronouncing in regard to them, 
which does not evince a capability of thought and know- 
ledge, in a greater or less degree. Still, the intellectual 
capabilities of man are so vastly superior to, and of such 
indefinitely wider range than those of the most favored 
tribes of inferior animals, that, in regard to intellect alone, 
man stands, not only at the head of all the creatures upon 
the earth, but upon an elevation vastly above them : — so 
much so, it is obviously the case, that many hastily con- 
clude that, in this respect, there is nothing common to 
man and the inferior animals. In this judgment, we cannot 
concur. We think that we perceive, in these animals, as 
clear and as certain evidences of the existence of intellect 
as we do in man ; but, in the strength of intellectual facul- 
ties and in the scope of their operation, man exceeds them 
indefinitely. While the intellectual faculties of the inferior 
animals, so far as we can perceive, are limited to what 
regards their present necessities and to their subordination 
to man, and, in respect even to these, are capable of 
exceedingly little improvement, there seems scarcely any 
attainable limit to the range or to the improvement of 
man's intellectual operations. We see no reason to believe 
that the inferior animals have any conception of mental 
or moral science, of mathematics or natural philosophy, of 
the useful or elegant arts. Man, on the contrary, finds, 
in these branches of intellectual operation, a congenial 
field of mental occupation. In them, he expatiates, not 
only with refined and elevated pleasure, but with a con- 
stant increase of intellectual strength and development. 

14 



210 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

As truth after truth is evolved by his investigation, he 
finds his mental capacity expanded and his strength of 
mind increased, for the acquisition of still more of the 
" treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 

But, it is in the moral faculties of his spirit, that the 
true nobility of man's nature is seen. This is, we con- 
ceive, peculiar to man, among all the inhabitants of the 
earth. None of the inferior animals indicate any know- 
ledge of the distinction between moral right and wrong — 
none of them evince any sense of moral obligation, or 
compunction for wrong committed. But, man has a clear 
perception of moral distinctions, as well regarding what 
relates to the state of his affections, as in what regards his 
conversation and conduct; and, he is able to apply those 
distinctions to the various relations which he sustains to 
his Creator, to his fellow-men and to inferior creatures. 
Moral ability was, equally with moral perception, an attri- 
bute of man's spiritual nature, in his original state. Had 
there been any constraint upon the actions of man, so that 
he could not freely and efficiently have determined his 
own course, such actions could not properly have been 
regarded as moral in their nature. This is readily con- 
ceded by all 9 in cases where the constraint is imposed by 
physical force. Yet, (but on what rational ground we 
cannot conceive,) moral constraint, equally invincible as 
physical could be, is, by some regarded as not effecting the 
moral character of an action, performed under it. Con- 
straint, we suppose, no matter how or by what it is 
imposed, must, in the nature of the thing, destroy the 
moral character of the action which results from or is 
governed by it. Even in cases where such constraint is 
the consequence of habitual delinquency, the delinquent 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 211 

will, we suppose, be held responsible rather for the delin- 
quency whereby he has destroyed his moral agency, than 
for an action which he was compelled to perform, by the 
invincible evil tendency, to which he has subjected him- 
self by such delinquency. For instance : Who would hold 
the confirmed maniac morally, any more than legally 
responsible for any crime, to which his insanity might 
impel him, even though that insanity were the direct 
result of criminal indulgence obstinately persisted in? 
And why would no one charge upon the perpetrator of an 
action, otherwise criminal, performed in such circumstances, 
either moral or legal guilt? Simply, we apprehend, because 
he was incapable of choosing, freely and efficiently, between 
right and wrong in the matter. All would justly condemn 
him for the criminal indulgence, by which he had destroyed 
his moral agency; though they could not hold him to be 
morally, any more than legally guilty, in the action which 
resulted from his having done so. That man was created 
a moral agent, and, therefore, that he was endued with 
freedom and efficiency of will, is manifest from the fact 
that his righteous Creator subjected him at once to moral 
government — enjoining on him abstinence from a speci- 
fied indulgence, and denouncing against him a fearful 
penalty, in case of his disobedience to the injunction. 

Man was in the image of his Divine Creator, when he 
came from the hands of that Creator. In what that image 
consisted, we have clear intimations in the writings of St. 
Paul. It was not impressed upon the form or features of 
his physical frame, but on the intellectual and moral facul- 
ties of his spirit. It consisted in knowledge, righteousness 
and true holiness. Of man's capacity for knowledge, to 
an extent whose limits have never yet been reached, we 



212 CREATION OP MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

have already spoken, as we also have of his capacity for 
righteousness and true holiness, in treating of the moral 
faculty with which he was endued by his Creator. But, 
we suppose, that more than mere capacity for these attri- 
butes is affirmed of man, when it is declared that he was 
created in the image of God. With what extent of 
knowledge, he came into existence, we have no means 
of determining; but there are clear intimations that it 
was very considerable, almost immediately after his 
creation. His primitive occupation, of dressing the gar- 
den of Eden, supposes him acquainted with horticulture 
— his reception of Eve, and his observations in regard to 
her, evince an acquaintance with her origin and his rela- 
tion to her — his designation, by the Creator, to the task 
of giving names to inferior animals, would seem to imply 
a knowledge of their respective natures and habitudes ; — 
and, from the fact that moral duty was enjoined upon him, 
without any known previous instruction, in regard to moral 
obligation, it would appear that he possessed this most 
important of all the kinds of knowledge of which man is 
capable. This implies a knowledge of God, of the rela- 
tion subsisting between the Creator and the creature, and 
the obligation upon the creature, growing out of that 
relation. 

As knowledge, as well as the capacity to know, was a 
part of the image of God, in which man was created, so 
righteousness and true holiness, as well as a capacity for 
them, entered into its composition. True holiness consists 
in the absence of all moral evil, as well in the tendencies 
of the affections and passions, as in the conduct and con- 
versation of the person of whom it is predicated. It is 
perfect innocence — immaculate purity. And y such, if 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 213 

man was created in the image of God, was his moral state. 
There was not only no moral evil in him, but no tendency, 
no bias to such evil. There was a capability of such evil 
— without such capability he could not have been a moral 
agent. 

Righteousness, as well as true holiness, formed a 
striking feature in the image of God, in which man was 
created. As true holiness is the absence of all moral evil, 
so righteousness, in its strict import, implies the right 
direction of all the moral tendencies, and the exact and 
constant performance of every incumbent duty, whether 
to other creatures, or to the Creator Himself. All this is 
implied in righteousness, as the term, in its proper and 
complete signification, implies both being and doing right 
in all things and at all times. How long man continued 
in this state of purity and rectitude, we have no means of 
knowing ; but, we are warranted in affirming that he was 
created in it, and might have continued in it forever. 

Another lineament of the Divine image, in which man 
was created, was, we think, immortality. The immortality 
of his spiritual part is disputed by comparatively few, 
whether infidels, Jews or Christians. But, we carry our 
views on this subject still farther, and believe that, had 
man continued faithful to his obligations to his Maker, he 
would never have died. To this opinion, many, who 
receive the Scriptures as revealed truth, do not subscribe. 
Two principal objections, which have been urged against 
it, we shall notice. 

1. It is contended that in all physical organizations 
there is a tendency to dissolution, and that this is espe- 
cially evident in the case of animal organization. That 
this is the case, in the present condition of things, is 



214 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

readily conceded ; but, to argue from the present laws of 
animal life to what obtained while man was in a state of 
primeval perfection, is manifestly a begging of the whole 
question. If man, as we suppose, was rendered mortal by 
sin, it follows, by necessary consequence, that those 
tendencies to mortality, which are now found in his animal 
organization, were produced by the same fatal agency. 
And, besides, we have, as we think, decisive indications 
in the laws of animal life, even in its present impaired 
condition, that the tendency in it to dissolution is not 
an original and a necessary tendency, but incidental to it, 
from some agency which has deranged its original consti- 
tution. For a great proportion of life, the conservative 
principle, in the animal organization, is sufficient, not 
merely to prevent a speedy dissolution, or to prevent any 
sensible waste of its energy, but, can and does secure a 
constant increment of the powers of life. And if this, in 
present circumstances, can be performed for twenty, thirty, 
or forty years, who shall say that, in the undisordered 
condition in which man was created, it might not and 
would not have been performed forever? That there is 
now a tendency to dissolution, in the physical constitution 
of man, is unquestionable ; but, that it is not an original 
and a necessary tendency appears to us evident from the 
fact that, whenever it is rendered apparent, it is accom- 
panied by pain, — a sure indication, we apprehend, that the 
tendency is a disturbance of the native and proper opera- 
tion of the organism affected by it. Combining these two 
facts — that the tendency to death or dissolution is mani- 
festly a disturbance of the laws of animal life, and that 
the conservative principle in the animal economy is able, 
for many years together, not only to prevent deterioration, 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 215 

but even to bring increase of vigor to all the functions of 
life, we are led to the conclusion that there is really no 
force in the argument against our position, drawn from the 
existing tendency in the physical organization of man to 
dissolution. 

2. It is objected to our doctrine, that, if man had been 
immortal in his present organization, and if, as was mani- 
festly intended by the Creator, the human race had been 
propagated, in successive generations, as is now the case, 
the earth in time would have been so crowded with inhab- 
itants that there would have been no room for farther 
increase ; and that, by such means, myriads must have 
been withheld from existence, who otherwise might have 
come into being, with the assurance of spiritual immor- 
tality. There would be much force in this objection, were 
the Creator restrained to death as the only mode of 
removing man from earth to another scene of existence. 
But, as if to meet this objection, He has shown that He is 
not so restrained ; but, that, from among the death- 
doomed family of fallen man, even He can, when He 
chooses, convey the righteous, without their tasting death, 
to the abodes of the blessed. This, He has done in the 
cases of Enoch and Elijah; and this, the apostle assures 
us, He will do, in the case of those " who are alive and 
remain at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We 
suppose that, had not "sin entered into the world, and 
death by sin," every individual and generation of man, 
when the purpose for which they were placed upon earth 
should have been accomplished, would pass into the 
heavens, without the experience of death, as did Enoch 
and Elijah. If so, there would have been no greater 



216 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

danger, that the earth should be over-crowded, than there 
is in the present state of things. 

Having thus disposed of the main objections, which are 
urged against the opinion we have advanced, we now 
remark that we consider that opinion fully authorized by 
the Sacred Scriptures. Had man been liable to death, in 
his primeval state, there would have been a manifest 
absurdity in making death the penalty of violating the law 
of probation given to him. But, it is contended that it 
was not the death in question which was the penalty 
denounced against such violation, but spiritual death or 
the separation of the soul from God. We readily allow 
that spiritual death was a constituent in the death 
threatened against transgression ; but, we are thoroughly 
convinced that physical death was equally so. This we 
shall have occasion in a future discourse to consider more 
at length, and therefore, shall pursue it no farther at this 
time. Believing, then, that physical as well as spiritual 
death was the penalty denounced against the transgression 
of the law given to our first parents, we feel warranted in 
concluding that man was created immortal — in other 
words, that he would never have died, had he never 
sinned. 

Once more : man was created in the image of God, in 
that he was happy. Of the infinite happiness of God, no 
one can entertain a doubt; and, a very slight considera- 
tion of the physical and moral condition, and the external 
relations of man, in his primitive state, renders his perfect 
happiness equally unquestionable. His physical condition 
was one of accurately adjusted means to the ends to be 
accomplished — appetites, the indulgence of which would, 
while it afforded him pleasure, be conducive to his well- 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 217 

being — powers, commensurate to the demands of his con- 
dition — senses connecting him with the world external 
to himself ; and all these healthful and regulated in such 
exactness as that there was in them no excess, no defect- 
iveness. His moral condition was, as we have seen, one 
of unsullied purity and of unbending rectitude. Hence, 
there was no place for self-reproach- — none for appre- 
hension of Divine displeasure. Self-estimation was 
unqualified self-approval, and the smile of God was assured 
on the high ground of its being deserved. His external 
relations, whether to God, to his fellow-creatures, to 
inferior animals or to all nature and all duration, were 
relations of peace, of security and of advantage. The 
complicated machinery of nature's laws could educe no 
evil to him. The evil spirit, how great soever his malig- 
nity might be, could work him no harm, so long as he 
should preserve his purity and rectitude, and the ministry 
of all good spirits, even of the highest, would be constantly 
conducive to his felicity. 

May we not from what has been seen, of the nature, 
capabilities and character of man when created, fairly con- 
clude that our first point, viz : that the Creator attached 
to the creation of man a greater degree of importance than 
He did to the creation of all other terrestrial beings ; and 
that in doing so, He was guided by a just appreciation of 
man and of those other creatures, is fully established ? 
We certainly think so. Variety, beauty and splendor are 
found in other terrestrial productions of creative skill and 
power; but in man, to a high order of physical excellence 
is added superior intellectual capabilities, moral sense and 
moral power, originally free from all bias to wrong, and a 
capacity for happiness, which, in his primeval state, was 



218 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

met with an adequate supply of means. And, his happi- 
ness thus provided for, might and would have been 
uninterrupted and unending had he not abused his moral 
power in transgressing the laws of his Creator. We pro- 
ceed now to consider, 

III. The purpose of God in the creation of man; and, 
1. We suppose it was the purpose of God in the creation 
of man to provide a representative of himself upon earth. 
This, we think, is implied in the fact that He " created 
man in His own likeness and image." Would it, we would 
ask, have corresponded to the wisdom of the Creator to 
produce a world, so vast and various as this, without one 
race of beings capable of reflecting the character and 
representing the dignity of the Creator ? We think not. 
And we find, accordingly, that man in intellectual capa- 
bilities and in moral powers, was qualified to serve these 
important purposes : the former, by enabling man to 
understand the works of the Creator — to analyze the laws 
impressed upon matter, and the peculiar laws of each 
organic existence — to trace out and appreciate the skill, 
the foresight and the strict regard to utility with which 
these laws are adapted to the purposes contemplated in 
the productions of creation ; to group the whole of these 
productions, and to codify the whole of these laws, into 
systems of stupendous magnitude and unjarring harmony, 
have qualified him to display the wisdom and benevolence, 
as well as the power of the Creator ; while the latter, by 
means of moral perception and power of moral action, 
enabled man in his own character, to present a true, 
though faint representation of the holiness, the truth and 
the justice of the Divine character. All this man was, at 
least in his primeval state, well fitted to accomplish ; and, 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 219 

as such, was qualified to serve as a representative of his 
Creator in the world in which he was placed. 

Again : in the dominion, over other mundane creatures, 
which was explicitly and formally delegated to man, by the 
Creator, he was legally constituted the vicegerent of the 
Creator — the representative of His authority upon earth. 
To this high office, he was admirably fitted, by his superior 
intelligence, his ability to multiply indefinitely the resources 
of his personal condition, and, especially, by the social 
combinations, into which he could enter for the accomplish- 
ment of purposes important to his race. For this he was 
originally qualified, by the moral rectitude of his nature, 
in which there was an ample guarantee that the dominion 
which his superior intelligence, multiplied resources and 
social combination should enable him to maintain, over 
inferior creatures, would not be exercised in cruelty or 
oppression — nay," that its exercise would be positively 
conducive to the well-being of the creatures subjected 
to it. 

Once more : Man was constituted the representative 
of his Creator on earth, by the happiness of his original 
state. With a physical organization, in which no part was 
lacking, none in disorder, all operating healthfully and 
harmoniously — with a mind unclouded, unperturbed and 
clear-sighted — with affections pure, temperate and rightly 
directed — with a "conscience void of offence towards 
God," and towards all creatures — with sensible com- 
munion with God, and His unqualified approval — how 
could man be otherwise than perfectly happy ; especially 
as he was, in addition to all these great advantages, 
associated with a companion, who was every way a suitable 
help to him, in the enjoyment of Eden, the garden of 



220 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

delight I And, in all this happiness, he was guaranteed 
immutably, so long as he should maintain unbroken his 
fealty to his bounteous Creator and rightful Sovereign. 

Finally: Man was the representative of his Creator's 
immortality. This, like all the rest, was derived and for- 
feitable ; but, this, any more than the other peculiar 
advantages, with which he was endowed by his Creator, 
need not have been lost by man. There was, in him, no 
latent disease, no distemperature of blood, which climate 
or food would develop in the course of time — no tendency 
to decay or dissolution through age or the wear and friction 
of organic action — no fatal decree, appointing and doom- 
ing the unoffending creature to the bitter pains of death. 
To unfallen man, we may appropriate, as the purpose of 
God towards him, what the Saviour affirmed of His disci- 
ples — "Because I live, ye shall live also." Had man con- 
tinued in obedience, we scruple not to say, that never would 
the death-struggle have wrung a groan from a human 
bosom — never the death-wail have ascended from a 
human habitation. In man, would have been seen a con- 
stant type of Divine immortality. 

The purpose of God, in creating man, was, in accord- 
ance with the views just presented, that "man should 
glorify his Creator, and enjoy Him forever." For this, as 
we have seen above, he was not only endowed with the 
amplest personal qualifications, but was placed in the most 
favorable circumstances that could have been thrown 
around him. He had intelligence to understand and 
appreciate the Divine perfections displayed to him, whether 
by rneans of creation and providence, or communicated 
directly by revelation. He had moral perception to appre- 
hend the pure and the good, the true and the just in char- 



CREATION OF MAN ANI> HIS OBLIGATIONS. 221 

acter, and his social powers qualified him to communicate 
to other intelligent beings, his impressions of the wisdom, 
the power and the goodness, the purity, the truth and the 
justice of the Everliving Creator of all things. His ele- 
vated position, at the head of earth's myriad tribes, and as 
the representative and vicegerent of the Sovereign Creator, 
gave a weight and an authority to his impressions and 
utterances, which, in other circumstances, would not have 
been conceded to them. Hence, it was eminently in his 
power to " glorify God." And, with perfect health of 
body, serenity of mind, purity of heart and an approving 
conscience, all ministering to an aptitude for enjoyment, 
he was capable of " enjoying God," in the contemplation 
of His works, in the investigation of His superintending 
providence, in the appropriation of His various bounty, in 
the smile of His approbation and in high and holy com- 
munion with Him. And, in his immortality, (dependent 
only on his fidelity,) he had a sure guarantee of the per- 
petuity of his inestimable privilege — to " enjoy God 
forever." 

Allowing it to have been the purpose of God, in the 
creation of man, to constitute him His representative on 
earth, with the ultimate intention that, in that character, 
he should " glorify his Creator and enjoy Him forever ;" 
and that, to secure this result, He endowed man with 
intellectual and moral capabilities and with susceptibilities 
such as we have indicated, was not the purpose of that 
creation worthy the Creator? And, was not man's 
creation, with such capabilities and susceptibilities, and 
for such a purpose, a boon to man of inestimable value % 
Let it not be urged that the possibility that man should 
forfeit, by dereliction of sacred obligation, his high position 



222 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

and his perfect felicity, renders his creation a doubtful 
benefit. That possibility was, in fact, indispensable to his 
high position and to his perfect happiness ; as, without it, 
he could not have been a moral agent — could not have 
been man. We, now, proceed to consider, 

IV. The obligation of man to his Creator, resulting from 
the fact of his Creation. 

It is a principle, universally admitted, we believe, that 
the inventor and producer have an absolute right to the 
use of their productions. If this principle be correct, in 
a case where the materials, of which such production is 
constructed, are already in existence, and where the laws 
of its formation are already in operation, so that the pro- 
ducer has only to select the proper materials and place 
them under the operation of the appropriate laws, in order 
to the existence of the production to which he lays his 
universally-admitted claim, how much more manifestly does 
it hold good in a case of proper creation, where the pro- 
ducer not only forms the organization, but also furnishes 
the materials employed, and originates the laws upon which 
its construction is formed? Thus did God, in the creation 
of man. Both the matter and the spirit, which enter into 
the composition of man, were produced by his Creator. 
Every law, which operates in his organization, whether 
upon his body or his mind, proceeds from the same great 
Source of his being. These laws were adjusted, in his 
organization, to the production of the result obtained, by 
the same wise and powerful Artificer. In the highest 
possible sense, God was the Inventor and Producer of man; 
and, He, therefore, has an unquestionable and absolute 
right to the use of man. From this, it results, by direct 
consequence, that man, who was rendered capable of such 



CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 223 

service by his mental and moral constitution, is under the 
most binding obligation to be voluntarily subject, in all 
things and at all times, to the will of God. Whatever God 
shall see proper to require of him, whether in the employ- 
ment of his physical powers, or in the direction of his 
mental operations or moral affections, is indispensably 
obligatory upon him. He can have no right to demand 
either abatement or change in such requirements, nor, on 
any account, to act contrary to them. Let it not be 
objected that this is slavery to absolute despotism. If 
the right of the despot is unquestionable, there can be 
nothing base in the slavery which is its correlative. And 
if the despot be wise, and benevolent, just and unchange- 
able, no relation could be happier, to a dependent being, 
than would be subjection to such a ruler. The right of 
God, to absolute sovereignty over man is indisputable; 
and, who will deny to Him those qualities which would 
render His absolute rule a blessing to those in subjection 
to it? He is too independent — too infinitely exalted 
above the possibility of reaping any advantage from the 
oppression of His subjects, to have any motive to oppress 
them. He has wisdom to understand what is just to them, 
and righteousness to mete it out to them. He knows what 
will be for their advantage; and His benevolence will 
pursue the course which will lead to that result. And, 
His power is ample to supply their wants, and protect them 
against enemies. In short, He is such a Sovereign, so 
ample in His rights of sovereignty, and so infinitely 
qualified to rule well and for the advantage of His sub- 
jects, that no creature, how high soever his position among 
creatures, could, in the least, abase himself by absolute 
submission to Him; and greater happiness would result 



224 CREATION OF MAN AND HIS OBLIGATIONS. 

from such submission, than from entire independence on 
His authority. 

Such, then, was the obligation of man to his Creator, 
resulting from the fact of his creation. His body and his 
spirit, his time and his talents were to be voluntarily devoted 
to the doing of the will of his Creator, without question 
and without a murmur. What He should forbid, must be 
avoided-what He commanded, must be performed promptly, 
faithfully, cheerfully. It was not for man to ask, in regard 
to any requirement of God, ' Is this necessary, is this in 
accordance with the fitness of things?' nor to say, 'This 
is a hard saying; ' but, it is for him to accredit the wisdom, 
the goodness and the righteousness of God, by an instant, 
a hearty and cheerful conformity to such requirement. 
Thus, faith, love and obedience were, originally, as they are 
under the Christian dispensation, the sum of all duty — 
the essential characteristics of man's obligation to God. 
And, now, as then, the well-being of man, both in time and 
in eternity, is dependent upon fidelity to this obligation. 
Accordingly, while man continued faithful to his obliga- 
tion, his happiness was perfect — his "joy was unspeakable 
and full of glory," and, thus, it might have continued 
forever. 



DISCOURSE VI. 

THE ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE DEVIL, AND HIS 

ENMITY TO MAN. 

The Devil sinneth from the beginning. — 1 John iii, 18. 

In our former Discourses, we have contemplated the 
character of two of the principal actors in the drama of 
human existence — God and Man — the latter, in his 
primitive state of innocence and happiness. These char- 
acters present only that which is pleasing. In them, we 
see only that which is holy, just and good. In them, is 
seen the union of mental excellence with moral perfection, 
in the highest degree of which their natures respectively 
were capable. From the contemplation of objects, so 
engagingly beautiful, it is now necessary to withdraw our 
minds, and to direct our attention to a being of a quite 
different character ; — one in whom great intellectual 
powers are associated with the worst moral qualities — one 
in whom there is no infusion of good, to rectify the viru- 
lence of concentrated evil — one absolutely wicked in 
nature, and industriously and indefatigably employed in 
accomplishing designs corresponding to the depravity of 
that nature — a being irreconcilable in his enmity to God ; 
who, without temptation, from without himself, and without 
precedent in all the ages of eternity, abusing the liberty 
with which he, as a moral agent, was endowed by his Crea- 
tor, and in violation of the obligation he was under to that 
15 225 



226 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

Benevolent Author of all the good he enjoys, became a 
rebel against the Divine Government, and has continued, 
as the text informs us, to pursue his rebellious course, with 
untiring perseverance, to the present time. 

By the word, " beginning," we are not to understand 
either the beginning of time, or the beginning of the 
Devil's existence, but the beginning of his transgression, 
which was, in fact, the origin of sin, the commencement 
of all evil, moral and physical, in the universe. And the 
idea intended to be conveyed by the text, is the unre- 
lenting perverseness of this evil spirit. From the first 
moment of his apostasy to this day, he has set himself to 
counteract the designs of God, and to hinder or destroy 
the virtue, and, consequently, the happiness of other crea- 
tures. Man, especially, is exposed to his cruel attacks ; 
and, by his having yielded to and been overcome by him, 
man has weakened his own means of defense, and rendered 
his malignant enemy the more confident of success in his 
mischievous attempts. It is, therefore, of very great 
importance that we should be brought into such acquaint- 
ance with the character and designs of this formidable and 
malignant adversary, as to be prepared to guard ourselves 
against his mischievous practices against us. This is 
spoken of, as important, by St. Paul, when he says, 
speaking of the Devil, "We are not ignorant of his 
devices." To contribute to this acquaintance, we design, 
in discoursing on the text, to consider, 

I. Some of the evidences we have of the existence of 
the Devil; 

II. His origin; 

III. His character; and, 

IV. His enmity to man. 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 227 

I. We are to consider some of the evidences we have of 
the existence of the Devil 

1. The common sense of mankind, unequivocally asserts 
the existence of an Evil being or of evil beings, whose 
object and aim are to prevent good to the utmost of their 
power, and to destroy it wherever it exists. In all sys- 
tems of natural religion, whether refined or gross; in every 
nation, whether savage or civilized, whatever difference 
may exist, as to his origin, rank or power, such a being is 
supposed to exist; and to exist in the same evil character, 
and with the same malignant hostility to all that is good. 
The Manichean system, which arrayed divinity against 
itself, dividing the power of deity between the Evil and 
the Good, gave but an exaggerated importance to the 
Evil being, whose success in perverting man, and in coun- 
terworking the benevolent purposes of the Deity, through 
the unconstrained moral agency of man, might readily 
enough lead astray the speculations of human philosophy, 
unguided by revelation, to the Manichean conclusion, that 
the Evil is equal to the Good in the Divine nature and 
government. The Manichean doctrine differs but little 
from the opinion which is, we suppose, common to most 
savage nations — it obtains, at least, among the aboriginal 
inhabitants of this continent: 'That there are two equal 
and eternal beings: the one Good, and the author of all 
good — the other Evil, and the author of all evil.' These 
two deities, they imagine to be in eternal opposition to 
each other, and constantly employed in endeavors to 
thwart each other's designs; and that, when one prevails 
over the other, it is some adventitious circumstance, or 
some peculiar activity, which secures the ascendency 
obtained. The Greeks and Romans, imagined the uni- 



228 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

verse divided into three vast Empires, the Celestial, the 
Aquatic and the Infernal, and over each of these, a supreme 
deity. He, to whom their opinion assigned the Infernal 
Empire, is represented as a gloomy, a malignant and an 
inexorable being, who shunned the light of heaven and 
surrounded himself with horrors unalterable and incon- 
ceivable by mortals. All the inferior powers, who exercised 
authority in this dreary empire of darkness, were beings 
of like character with their hideous chief. Gorgons and 
the Furies, Hecate and Ate, were distinguished personages 
in the court of the infernal monarch, and are represented 
in the most frightful colors in which the imagination of 
man could portray them. Whenever any of these sub- 
terranean divinities are said to visit the regions of the 
upper air, it is for some malign purpose — some purpose 
affronting to other divinities, or mischievous to the proper 
inhabitants of those regions. Vice and misery, discord 
and destruction, mark the footsteps of these foes to order 
and happiness, wherever they go. There was little need, 
certainly, in the system of Mythology, common to these 
two nations, lettered and refined as they were, for any 
divine agency exclusively wicked; inasmuch as every 
deity, in the immense multitude which flourished in their 
fruitful imagination, was sufficiently prepared, when occa- 
sion served, to act the part of the devil in a high style of 
perfection. The most unblamable among those gods were 
often so abandoned in their manners and so profligate in 
their morals, as that it would have disgraced the meanest 
and worst of their worshipers to resemble them. Lust, 
envy, ambition, falsehood, treachery and cruelty were as 
prevalent in the court, and even in the bosom of Jupiter, 
as they are commonly found in the courts of earthly 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 229 

princes. Yet, notwithstanding the great, but partial, 
wickedness of their better deities, which rendered them a 
pretty just copy of human nature, something suggested 
to those sharp-sighted and philosophical investigators of 
moral phenomena, the necessity for the existence of a 
being or class of beings, with an immense preponderance 
of evil in their natures, if they were not absolutely evil, 
to account for much that occurs in the operations and 
experience of the moral world. Men, versed in the history 
of human experience, as these Grecian and Roman sages 
were, would feel the force of this necessity; and, in framing 
a system of religion, by the light of their own experience 
and observation on the phenomena of human life, would 
find a place in that system for a being absolutely and 
inevitably wicked — such as are their Pluto and his subor- 
dinate divinities, and such as are the Devil and his angels 
of scripture representation. The Greeks and Romans 
were men; and they participated in that dictate of com- 
mon-sense which we are now considering. The Persians 
and the Mahometans declare that there is but one God; 
but they suppose that there are two descriptions of beings, 
of a nature superior to that of man, the one good and the 
other evil; and, to the former, they give the name of 
good, and to the latter, the name of evil genii. It is, as 
they believe, the business of the evil genii to corrupt the 
manners, debauch the morals and disturb the peace of 
mankind ; in other words, as far as they may, to extirpate 
good and establish evil. 

From all this, it appears that men, in the most entirely 
different circumstances, with prejudices as various as those 
circumstances, and with every degree of intellectual 
improvement, from the barbarian to the learned scholar 



230 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

and profound philosopher, have believed in the existence 
of a spiritual being, or of spiritual beings, wicked and 
malignant, whose business it is to oppose whatever tends 
to virtue or happiness among men. This universal agree- 
ment, though it does not establish the doctrine for which 
we are now contending, does render it highly probable. 
And the probability is strengthened by this circumstance 
— that, though all men agree as to the simple fact of the 
existence of such a being, each arrays him in the habit 
and assigns him the rank and manners which correspond 
to his own particular circumstances. It will not weaken 
the force of this argument, that many people have con- 
ceived the most improbable and absurd superstitions in 
regard to this being ; for those superstitions could not be 
more absurd or improbable than those which have been 
embraced concerning the Great First Cause Himself. We 
would not be understood to say, that the evidence of the 
existence of an evil being is equally strong and clear with 
that which proves the existence of God ; but we do say, 
that the common-sense of mankind affirms the one as well 
as the other ; and the same argument that will weaken 
the force of this evidence in the one case, will weaken it 
in the other. The common-sense of mankind, when it 
can be fairly ascertained, furnishes an argument of such 
weight as to render extremely probable anything which 
cannot be proved to be false by experiment or demonstra- 
tion ; and, as we conceive that we have made it appear 
that this doctrine is supported by that authority, we feel 
fully justified in concluding that it is probable there is a 
Devil. 

2. The individual experience of every man will furnish 
to himself strong, if not irresistible evidence of the exist- 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 231 

ence of an evil being. It will readily occur to every one 
that we do not mean to say that the Devil has been an 
object of sense to every man. What power a disembodied 
spirit may have of rendering itself visible or tangible to 
man, is not an object of present inquiry ; but, we know 
that spiritual beings are ordinarily known to exist only 
by the effects they produce. Even the Omnipresent 
Being, who superintends the various operations of provi- 
dence, can be recognized only in His works. This being 
understood, let any man attentively examine into the 
operations of his own soul, and he will find, we are per- 
suaded, convincing evidence that an evil agency is 
employed, in machinations to pervert his morals and 
disquiet his mind. He will find, it is true, much of the 
evil, of which he is conscious, to arise from the depravity 
of his own nature. But, when this is the case, the opera- 
tion will be according to the laws of mental operation gen- 
erally. He will be able to connect those evil emotions 
which arise from himself with something which has gone 
before, or with some circumstance which, by the laws of 
association, has called them into action; or, he will be 
able to trace them to some appetite, passion or habit con- 
genial to the emotion which he feels, to which he is 
subject. But, besides these native tendencies, arising 
out of his depravity, suggested by association or resulting 
from previous influences exerted upon him, he will often 
be sensible of evil thoughts, evil passions and temptations 
to wickedness which are entirely insulated — having no 
precedents in his experience, no relation to kindred cir- 
cumstances in his condition, no congenial source in his 
own heart or habits. Whence could these proceed ? They 
are not the result of sensation, reflection or association. 



232 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

The natural, we think inevitable, conclusion is that they 
proceed from some being, of like character with the sug- 
gestion obtruded, who is able to address the mind directly, 
without having recourse to the ordinary means of com- 
municating ideas, by operating on the senses, exciting 
reflection or rousing a train of associated ideas. How 
often is it the case, that, when the mind is unusually tran- 
quil and disposed to serious reflection and devout exercises, 
the most profane, loose and wicked images are violently 
urged upon it ! In such cases, the whole soul is often 
seen to shrink with disgust and horror, and to strain every 
energy to the utmost, till the abominable idea is expelled. 
Can we suppose, then, that these shocking suggestions 
proceed from the mind itself ? And, if they do not, then, 
the conclusion results necessarily that every man, who is 
conscious of this kind of mental exercise, has a decisive 
argument in his own experience for the existence of this 
evil being. 

3. The third and last evidence we shall examine, on 
this subject, is the Sacred Volume. Proof, clearly derived 
from this source, must, with Christians, be decisive of any 
question. Probability, established by the common consent 
of mankind, in circumstances the most diversified, might 
possibly be set aside by stronger probabilities; and 
experience of diabolical influence might be explained 
away, or, at least, mystified, by the ingenuity of meta- 
physical sophistry; but, the explicit language of the 
Sacred Scriptures places any point, in regard to which it 
bears testimony, beyond all allowable controversy, with 
those who receive those Scriptures as the repositories of 
Divine teaching. Here, then, we shall rest the fate of the 
question now under discussion. If these Divine oracles 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 233 

unequivocally affirm the personal existence of the Devil, 
we shall disregard all efforts to discredit the fact ; whether 
those efforts take the form of sneering ridicule, mythical 
exposition or grave philosophical argument. We fear no 
error, under the plain guidance of this infallible instructor 
— led by the others, we know, men have been most 
egregiously stultified. 

But, amid such a multitude of testimonies, full to the 
purpose, as are to be found on the sacred pages, we find 
it exceedingly difficult to make a selection of such as will 
not appear less appropriate than others which are neglected. 
Almost every portion of the sacred volume contains notices 
of that evil being — some direct and unequivocal, others 
indicating his existence and operation, rather than directly 
and explicitly declaring them as historical facts. Of this 
latter kind, is the first intimation we have of the existence 
of the Devil, and of his enmity to mankind. To suppose 
that the serpent or the ape, or, indeed, any other of the 
inferior animals, was the proper tempter of the woman, to 
the primal offence, is so grossly absurd that we presume 
no man in his senses is capable of doing it. And, to find, 
in the tempter, a mythical representation of the propensi- 
ties existing in the woman herself, is to contradict the 
whole scope of the incident described ; as it would suppose 
the woman already a rebel at heart, instead of being 
tempted to a first departure from innocence. The serpent 
was, instrument ally, the tempter of Eve : but, what, save 
the influence of an Evil Intelligence could have prompted, 
or, more properly, used the serpent in the business of the 
temptation ? That the Devil is afterwards denominated, 
in Holy Writ, the "Old Serpent," clearly enough, we 
think, intimates his agency in this infernal transaction. 



234 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

Satan, or the Devil, acts a very conspicuous part in the 
melancholy tragedy of Job's family. Whatever of poetry 
there may be in the style of narrating this remarkable 
history of an eminently good man, thus much is plain, 
prosaic fact. The agent, in the misfortunes of Job, was 
an intelligent, active, powerful and malignant being — 
prompt to inflict the most cruel outrages upon Job, which 
the control of a Superior Power did not prevent him from 
inflicting. That this malignant adversary was not a man, 
is evident from the instrumentalities he employed in his 
hostility to Job. Not only were the bands of Chaldeans, 
whom, indeed, a man might have stimulated to the foray, 
let loose against the property of Job, but, the winds and 
the lightning were brought to wreak their elemental fury 
upon his possessions and his children f while disease, in a 
most painful and loathsome form, was inflicted upon his 
own person by his fell adversary. The employment of 
these instrumentalities for the "affliction of Job," was 
beyond the power of a human adversary ; but we are 
assured that they were employed by Satan ; therefore, 
the Satan who persecuted Job was superior in power to 
man. 

The New Testament almost opens with an account of 
the fell purpose and a most vigorous, though abortive 
effort of the Devil, to blast the hope of salvation to man- 
kind, in the bud. Hungry, through a, fast of forty days 
and forty nights, alone in a dreary desert, the Blessed 
Saviour was assailed by the Devil, in a series of tempta- 
tions, cunningly accommodated to the condition, the piety 
and the noble aspirations of his subject. To satisfy His 
hunger, He was admonished to work a miracle, by chang- 
ing stones into bread — to show his confidence in God, He 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 235 

was prompted to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of 
the temple — a sheer descent of some three hundred feet 
— with the assurance, from Scripture too, that, if He were 
the Son of God, He should be so upborne by angels, that 
He should not even " dash His foot against a stone." To 
secure universal Empire among men, He is invited to 
render homage to the " prince of the power of the air, 
the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedi- 
ence." Who will hazard his reputation, by ascribing these 
temptations to the Saviour's own impatience under the 
cravings of appetite ; to His fanatical confidence, in Divine 
protection to the presumptuous, and to His grasping 
ambition for power? The tempter exerted powers far 
beyond those possessed by man — in placing Jesus on the 
pinnacle of the temple, and on an exceedingly high 
mountain, and in exhibiting to Him, in a moment of time, 
a panoramic view of all the Kingdoms of the world, with 
all their glory. The tenor of the history renders it 
probable that only a few hours — perhaps minutes — were 
occupied in the presentation and repulsion of all these 
temptations. The whole narrative, then, is mere fiction, 
or the tempter was an Evil Intelligence, vastly superior 
in power to human beings. Elsewhere, in the Sacred 
writings, we are warned to be on our guard against the 
wiles of the Devil — commanded to "resist the Devil, 
steadfast in the faith ;" with the assurance, that, being 
so resisted, " he will flee from us." And, we are informed 
that " he goeth about, as a roaring lion, seeking whom 
he may devour." 

These, and numberless other passages of the Holy 
Scriptures, plainly affirm, or strongly intimate the exist- 
ence of the Devil 5 and, the only alternative left, to those 



236 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

who receive the Scriptures as a revelation from God, and 
deny the personal existence of the Devil, is to construe as 
allegorical, the various notices of him, in which the Scrip- 
tures abound. But, as there is no authority or need for 
such a construction, we might just as reasonably consider 
the whole Sacred volume an allegory; and the God, 
revealed in that volume, an allegorical personage. What 
is said of the Devil, in the Bible, is applicable to a real 
existence, and only to such an existence; and, there is 
not, in any part of that Book, the slightest intimation that 
it is to be otherwise understood. And, in fact, to keep in 
countenance the supposition, that the Devil is an allego- 
rical personage, the rudest violence must be done to the 
signification of language, to the dictates of common-sense 
and to the established rules of sound and rational criticism. 
Every landmark, that separates truth and history from 
falsehood and fiction, must be broken down and removed. 
But, allowing the Devil to be an allegorical personage, 
what, we ask, does he represent? The design of an alle- 
gory is, by means of persons and incidents familiar to the 
mind, to render easy of apprehension somewhat that lies 
remote from common observation, or which is too stupen- 
dous to be contemplated in its own native form of greatness 
and grandeur: or, the design is to veil the exhibition of 
revolting and repulsive representation, under appearances 
which, though they intimate the truth to be represented, 
yet do not expose its most disagreeable features in a strong 
and clear light : or, the design is to enliven and render 
captivating to the imagination some dry abstraction, by 
giving to its exhibition dramatic life and character. We 
again ask : ' What is represented by the Devil, if he be 
merely an allegorical personage ? ' We can conceive of no 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 237 

possible answer to this question; unless it be that human 
depravity, either in the individual himself who is tempted, 
or in the mass of human beings with whom the tempted 
party is associated, be what is so represented. But, that 
it is neither individual nor social depravity that is repre- 
sented by the Devil, as an allegorical personage, is manifest 
beyond all question or doubt, since individual and social 
depravity are mentioned in connection with the Devil, and 
clearly discriminated from him, in the same representation 
of the opponents with which man has to contend in a life 
of piety. It is well known that by the phrase, the flesh, 
in Scripture language, we are to understand the aggregate 
of human depravity. If any doubt this, let him read 
Gal v, 19-21, where many of the vices to which man is 
addicted are characterized as " the works of the flesh" 
" The world," in the language of Scripture, expresses the 
aggregate of the men who are alien from God, under the 
dominion of the flesh, or subject to the depravity of nature, 
engendered by the original transgression. Now, the Devil 
is associated with the flesh, both in its individual, and in 
its social capacity, as the adversary of piety, and is clearly 
enough distinguished from it, in both capacities* In Ephes. 
vi, 11, 12, the Apostle says : " Put on the whole armor 
of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of 
the Devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
but against principalities, against powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places." There is nothing in the 
original for places; and, we suppose, it ought not to have 
been supplied — nay, that its supposititious existence in 
the text, has tended to mislead the reader. The contest- 
ants here exhibited, as arrayed against the Christian, are 



238 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

" flesh and blood," nature in her fallen state, or individual 
depravity — "the rulers of the darkness of this world," 
the dominating influence of evil in the world — " spiritual 
wickedness, in high places" of great power, of super- 
human influence and resources. Here, we conceive, "the 
flesh," human depravity — the world, and the Devil, are 
represented as intimately associated, in the same mis- 
chievous enterprise against man; at the same time, that 
they are carefully distinguished from one another. The 
two former foes of man, however distinct in their proper 
existence, are subordinate to the Devil — their measures 
of hostility against man, are " wiles of the Devil." He 
is the arch-enemy — they are his subalterns. 

These evidences, of the existence of an evil being, 
spiritual in his nature and possessed of vast power and 
resources, called in the sacred Scriptures, "The Devil" — 
these evidences, we say, furnished by the common consent 
of mankind, by the experience of individuals, and by the 
Word of God, appear to us conclusive and irresistible. 
Satisfied of this, we shall now proceed, 

II. To inquire after the origin of this Evil Being. Of 
this, we can know no more than Infinite Wisdom has seen 
proper to reveal to us. There was no way by which man 
could become acquainted, to any extent, with the secrets 
of the invisible world, but by information which should be 
communicated by an inhabitant, or by inhabitants of that 
world. And it does not appear that any of these inhabi- 
tants will communicate (perhaps they may not communicate) 
what belongs to their state, without a commission from 
Him, who is Sovereign Ruler of all worlds. In the word of 
God, we are taught that " all His works are done in truth," 
i. e. according to the strictest justice and rectitude. Hence, 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 239 

the inference is natural and necessary, that He never crea- 
ted any being evil, or a being with a fatal tendency to 
become evil. This doctrine, and the inference that results 
so obviously from it, accord with the clearest dictates of 
reason and common-sense; and put it beyond reasonable 
dispute, that the Devil, such as he is at present, could not 
be the production of God's creating hand. It is generally 
received, as an axiom in philosophical reasonings, that 
there can be hut one eternal, self-existent being in the 
universe; and this, the Scriptures put beyond question, 
by assuring us that " God created all things in heaven and 
upon earth, visible and invisible ; whether they be thrones, 
or dominions, or principalities, or powers." Consequently, 
the Devil, considered merely as an existence, is the crea- 
ture of God. The question which remains to be considered 
is this: 'If the Devil be the creature of God; if God 
could not create an evil being, or a being with a fatal ten- 
dency to become evil, and if the Devil be now an evil 
being, how did he become what he is? 5 The answer to 
this question must, if obtained at all, be derived from 
Divine Revelation. There is no other source whence it 
can be drawn by man. In that repository of truth, we 
find it recorded that there were some of the angels — 
pure celestial spirits, who "kept not their first estate," 
who "sinned," or transgressed the law of their Creator. 
Among these rebel spirits, it is reasonable to suppose that 
there was a leader, an arch-traitor, whose superior art, 
official influence or authority contributed to turn the rest 
from their allegiance to their proper Sovereign. This 
supposition is countenanced, nay, we think, fully borne 
out, by the classification of the rebel hosts of darkness, 
as "The Devil and his angels." The leader and arch- 



240 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

traitor, in the primitive rebellion, we suppose to be the 
person distinguished by the appellative, u The Devil," by 
which the prime mover of evil among men, the embodi- 
ment of all wickedness, is distinguished in the Sacred 
Writings. 

This evil and malignant being, having been created, as, 
consistently with the Divine character, he must have been 
created, pure, and good, and upright, curiosity will prompt 
the inquiry, ( What could there have been to engender 
evil in such a being? What was there, either within or 
without himself, to seduce him into rebellion against his 
beneficent Creator, from whom he had received only 
kindness? With no bias to evil in his own nature, no 
precedent wickedness in the universe, to influence him by 
the force of example, no lack of means for enjoyment, proba- 
bly no superior cra^wre-greatness, to excite envy or inflame 
ambition, what motive could have impelled him to the 
evil choice he embraced?' These questions all proceed 
upon the false, unphilosophical supposition that the deter- 
minations of a free moral agent must have motives to 
produce them — a supposition as inconsistent with free 
moral agency, as that of either physical constraint or 
Divine coercion. The power to will either right or wrong, 
without extraneous control or influence, is indispensable to 
free moral agency; and, therefore, any necessary dependence 
of volition on motive-influence, is utterly inconsistent with 
such agency. It is idle, therefore, to inquire after those 
motives by which a pure and upright spirit of heaven was 
led into rebellion against his Creator. That motives have 
much to do in influencing the volitions of free moral 
agents, no man in his senses will deny; but that the 
agent may determine in accordance with or in opposition 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 241 

to any motive or any number of motives which may be 
presented, is, we think, equally certain, and is certainly 
necessary to free moral agency. So far as we can per- 
ceive, every motive, which could have been presented to 
the angel who first sinned, must have been, in the highest 
degree, conservative of his purity, his rectitude and his 
allegiance to God. Still, he sinned ! If he had a motive 
to his transgression, we cannot imagine what it was, nor 
has God deemed it important to reveal it to man. And, 
we cannot conceive of any advantage we could derive 
from ascertaining the motive to this first sin, if there were 
one; as the discovery of that motive would suggest the 
inquiry, ' Whence that motive?' and that, a similar inquiry, 
and so on ad infinitum: inasmuch as the prime causes and 
first principles of all things retire back, beyond the range 
of all human research and investigation. Wherefore, we 
shall not trouble you with the various conjectures which 
have been indulged, with regard to the motive to angelic 
transgression; nor shall we hazard any hypothesis of our 
own on the subject. All we do or can know on the sub- 
ject — all that could be of use to us to know — is that 
the Devil sinned and left his first estate, in the free, 
unconstrained abuse of his power, as a moral agent, with 
whioh his Creator had endued him, to render him capable* 
of the highest excellence of creature-existence — the 
greatest amount of the most refined and elevated enjoy- 
ment possible to creature-susceptibility, and of rendering 
homage and rational service to his bounteous Creator. 
Had any necessity, whether moral or physical, if, indeed, 
such a distinction in regard to moral action be not absurd 
— had any necessity constrained the Devil to rebel against 
God, reason and justice must lay the blame of that 



242 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

rebellion, if any be due, upon the author of that neces- 
sity; and not upon the Devil, who was the victim of that 
necessity, and not a moral agent in the matter. Necessity 
is inconsistent with all law : for law supposes freedom in 
the subject; and, hence, to conform to rule, under the 
control of necessity, is not to conform to law but to obey 
or yield to necessity — so, to act in opposition to the rule 
under the control of necessity, is not to trangress the law, 
but to obey necessity. Hence, a necessary violation of 
the law, no matter whence or of what kind the necessity, 
cannot be justly regarded as a transgression of the law, 
incurring censure or guilt. It is rather a misfortune, 
imposed by necessity upon the violator, and deserves pity, 
and not condemnation. The Devil, who "sinneth from the 
beginning," must have been free and unconstrained in his 
volition, or sin could not have been predicated of his action, 
without outrage upon the foregoing principles of moral 
philosophy, which we regard as having all the force of 
axiomatic truths. And, if free to choose, and a rebel against 
his Creator, how great his guilt ! How keen and unmiti- 
gated must be his self-reproach ! How amply merited the 
wretchedness of his lot! Justice has "reserved him in 
chains under darkness, unto the Judgment of the great 
day;" as, without necessity, he rebelled against his Creator, 
his Benefactor, his rightful Sovereign. We proceed, 
III. To consider the character of the Devil; and, 
1. He is cunning, or subtle. Wherever, in the Sacred 
Writings, we meet with any notices of this wicked being, 
we are very apt to be reminded, in some way, of his 
cunning. Wiles, devices and snares are in common use 
with him, in prosecuting his measures of hostility against 
£he human race. Not to be ignorant of these, is considered 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 243 

•of sufficient importance to be noted emphatically by St. 
Paul. To "stand against the wiles of the Devil," he 
represents it to be necessary that the Christian should 
" put on the whole armour of God." Those ministers of 
the Gospel, who act so as to incur an evil report, are 
represented by him as in danger of " falling into the snare 
of the Devil j" and all, who have fallen into that snare, 
are earnestly exhorted by him to pursue a course of strict 
propriety, " that they may recover themselves out of it." 
So subtle is the Devil represented to be that he assumes 
any mask, appears in any characters, and transforms him- 
self into any likeness that will most effectually serve iis 
purpose of beguiling, deceiving or ensnaring those, whose 
destruction or annoyance he meditates. Dr. A. Clarke 
supposes that the Devil has very slight pretensions to 
Wisdom. This is true ; if to choose the best end, be a 
part, of Wisdom : but, if, as we believe, wisdom consists in 
a skillful adaptation of means to the end proposed to be 
accomplished, then the Devil has claims to wisdom which 
few among the human race could rival. Such, originally, 
were his intellectual powers ; such have been his intense 
application and his extensive observation, and such his vast 
and varied experience, in his operations among men, that 
very few subjects, capable of being understood by a finite 
being, can be presented to his notice, which are too deep 
for his penetration, too vast to be comprehended by him 
or so complex as to baffle his efforts to analyze them. 
With the human character, he is particularly well 
acquainted. No shade, in that character, no matter how 
obscure or lightly touched, can elude his quick discern- 
ment. All the aptitudes, passions, tendencies, and 
.weaknesses of that character are subjects of his daily 



2-41 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

and deeply-interested scrutiny; and with the most suc- 
cessful methods of operating upon that character, in all 
its phases, he has made himself familiar, by innumerable 
experiments. He unquestionably has the faculty, whether 
natural or acquired is matter of no consequence, of dis- 
covering the peculiarly weak points of every subject upon 
whom he operates, and of devising the most successful 
methods of assailing those weaknesses. His adroitness at 
intrigue might well excite the envy of the most accom- 
plished seducer, who ever made it the business of his 
infamous life to lure into ruin the warm-hearted, who 
confided in his integrity; of the supplest demagogue, 
that ever stultified an honest people into the gross error 
of accrediting his ambition to the account of patriotism, 
or of the most proteus-like courtier who ever ascended to 
dignities, by tampering with the vendible virtues or 
imposing upon the unsuspecting ignorance of those who 
had the offices aspired to in their gift or under their 
patronage. He may have — he, doubtless, has, among 
his servants of the human race, disciples, upon whom he 
looks with the partiality of a father and the pride of a 
teacher and exemplar ; but, they must content themselves 
with ever remaining immeasurably inferior to their dis- 
tinguished master. The most versatile politician, that 
winds himself into unmerited distinction, by arts of 
indirection, calumny and fraud, can never attain to his 
facility in those arts, or to the success which is attendant 
upon his superior maneuvering. The veriest Walpole, 
that ever corrupted a nation, by intrigue and bribery, 
must ever remain a mere novice, in the arts of election- 
eering management, in comparison with the Devil. He 
is so intimately acquainted with all the mysteries of that 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 245 

kind of politics, which takes its direction from expediency 
regardless of principle, that it is wholly improbable he 
ever committed a fault against the system, in the whole 
course of his protracted campaign against the interests of 
mankind and the glory of God. True it is, that his best- 
concerted schemes have often been rendered abortive by 
a wisdom vastly superior to his cunning, and by a power, 
compared with which his utmost might is perfect weak- 
ness ; but, no instance, we think, can be shown, in which 
he has failed through mistake or miscalculation. How 
vastly important is it, then, that in all our unavoidable 
intercourse with this subtle being, we should distrust our 
own skill, and place ourselves under the guidance and 
instruction of Him, against whom no wisdom or cunning 
can ever succeed ! 

2. A second trait, in the character of this evil being, 
is falsehood. This has been already glanced at, but it 
deserves more particular notice. Dissimulation, fraud 
and falsehood are artifices by which he usually aims to 
accomplish his purposes of mischief against man. In the 
employment of these, he is entirely unscrupulous and 
exceedingly adroit. He has no difficulty in assuming 
any character which he deems best suited to his designs. 
To the niggardly, he can urge domestic claims, and the 
elaims of justice, with the gravity of a social moralist or of 
a judge, in bar of every appeal to liberality and benevo- 
lence. To the spendthrift, he can deal out the most 
biting sarcasms against meanness, hoarding pelf and 
miserly stinting, to prevent any attention to economy 
and prudent regulation of expenses by the rate of income. 
To the votary of pleasure, he is the apologist of a life of 
gaiety and dissipation ; while he fills the heart of the con- 



246 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

scientiously abstemious with painful doubts whether it be 
innocent to inhale the odor of a flower, or to indulge the 
taste with the flavor of an apple. Like the detestable 
miscreant, who professes to adore virtue, that he may 
enter her temple, defile her sanctuary and desecrate her 
altar, he will affect admiration of virtue and piety, when 
his object is to undermine the foundations of the former, 
and to substitute for the latter inoperative creeds, heart- 
less rites and barren ceremonies. To the youthful 
adventurer, new to the scenes of life, he holds up a 
perspective, in which can be seen no limit to the 
opportunity of reforming the life, changing the heart and 
making "his calling and election" to eternal happiness 
in heaven, an assured matter ; but, no sooner is serious 
concern for these things awakened in his bosom, than this 
supple maneuverer presents a retrospect, so filled with 
wasted time, slighted opportunities and contemned over- 
tures, that despair of change and of salvation is urgently 
impressed upon the mind of the penitent. The humble, 
sincere and diligent Christian, he often annoys with 
painful apprehensions of apostacy and ruin : while to the 
already half-fallen, the lukewarm and the formal, he 
chants a requiem, in which peace and safety are promised 
with soothing effect. He takes, with equal facility, the 
character of an angel of light, affecting homage to the 
Deity and benevolence to man ; and the groveling, tor- 
tuous and malignant attitude of a serpent, who conceals 
his movements that he may destroy with the more 
certainty. Anon he flames, before the trembling gaze of 
a feeble-minded antagonist, in all the lurid horrors of the 
Devil that he is. And, even this truthful exhibition of 
himself is a lie ; as it is meant as a menace against one, 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 247 

who, having " recovered himself out of the snare " of this 
enemy, is no longer within his power. Our blessed 
Saviour tells us, speaking of the Devil, that " when he 
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, 
and the Father of it." The father of lying ! What a 
detestable character ! A worse could hardly be conceived, 
as belonging to either man or Devil. Falsehood severs the 
bonds of society, by destroying that mutual confidence 
which is essential to their existence. Were there no 
other reason to call in question the justness of Milton's 
panegyric on the social character of the infernal hosts— 
"Devil with Devil damn'd, firm concord hold" — this 
would be abundantly sufficient. For, however they may 
co-operate in their efforts for the ruin of virtue and hap- 
piness, there is, we conceive, no concord in their intercourse 
with one another — no harmony in their feelings towards 
one another. Truth and consequent confidence are 
indispensable to agreement and fidelity in social inter- 
course ; and these cannot be found in a society composed 
of those whose natures are a perennial source of falsehood. 
3. A third characteristic of the Devil is restless activity. 
When he presented himself among the sons of God, as 
narrated in the book of Job, he was interrogated as to 
whence he came ; and he answered, " From going to and 
fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." 
His occupation lies extended over the whole region which 
is inhabited by the human race. Wherever a human 
being is found, there this malignant foe to truth, goodness 
and happiness finds employment. And so intent is he 
on the accomplishment of his cruel purposes, that he loses 
no opportunity, nor suffers a moment to pass without 
making it subservient to them, to the utmost extent of 



248 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

his ability. Peter compares him, in his activity and fell 
purpose, to the lion which, impelled by hunger, ranges 
the forest in search of prey, roaring in his impatience for 
the means of satisfying his ravenous appetite. "He 
goeth about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may 
devour." Let it not be supposed that we design either 
to disparage industry, or to praise the Devil, at the 
expense of those miserable drones among men, who seem 
to think themselves born to no other purpose than that 
of taxing the labor of their fellow-creatures for the means 
of supporting an existence, but little removed, in point 
of activity, from mere vegetation. No ! their idleness is 
not quite so bad as the industry of the Devil ; for it only 
tends to clothe themselves and those dependent on them 
in rags, or, which is equally base, in eleemosynary raiment; 
to excite the contempt, the scorn and the indignation of 
the better part of their species ; to depreciate their dignity 
and narrow down the scope of their intellect, and to 
humiliate their relations in society, and, perhaps, secure 
their personal ruin forever: while, the industry of the 
Devil is intended and calculated to mar all that is fair in 
moral character ; to destroy all that is noble in present 
enjoyment, and to throw the pall of utter hopelessness 
over the prospects of the future, throughout the whole 
scope of human destiny. Busy to do mischief, the Devil 
cannot lay claim to the honor of virtuous industry. His 
activity is rendered exceedingly efficient, by the celerity 
with which he can transport himself through the regions 
of space, no matter how vast, in which he operates. The 
speed imparted by the impulse of wind or steam will bear 
no comparison with his rapidity of movement. Even the 
.conveyance of intelligence by the Electric Telegraph, 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 249 

must be regarded as slow, compared with the fleetness of 
his motion. Thought, of man, itself, encumbered as it is 
by association, will be distanced by that motion. Nor is 
there other impediment in his course, but where the 
Divine will is interposed. An unembodied spirit, adamant 
opposes no obstacle to his progress — 

" Walls within walls no more his passage bar, 
Than unopposing space of liquid air." 

4. A fourth trait in the character of the Devil, is 
implacable hatred against mankind. Whence this hatred, 
who can determine? We can only conjecture. We sup- 
pose, then, that it is because man was created in the 
image of that God, against whom this evil being had 
rebelled — was created to enjoy that God, and to manifest 
forth His glory. Possibly, moreover, the Devil looked 
upon man as designed to succeed to the happiness which 
he and his angels had forfeited; to shine in the sphere of 
glory and brightness from which he and they had been 
cast out for rebellion against their Creator. Envy, then, 
and pride, and malignity against that Power which had 
thwarted his ambition, crushed his rebellion and punished 
his treason, by headlong precipitation into everlasting per- 
dition, may have been his incitements to the inveterate 
hatred with which he has ever regarded man. Be this as 
it may, it is placed beyond question, by the Divine records, 
that he does regard man with bitter, inextinguishable and 
unmitigable hatred, and pursues him with rancorous and 
indefatigable hostility. 

5. Implacable enmity against God, is another prominent 
trait in the character of the Devil — we should say, indeed, 
that it is the substratum of his moral character. This is his 



250 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

master passion; the mainspring which sets in motion his 
whole moral being. This impels him to incessant efforts 
for the subversion of all the works of God — the defeat 
of all His plans. With no other inducement, he is untiring 
in his endeavors to deface the beauty and disturb the har- 
mony of the worlds which God has called into being, for 
His own glory, and for the diffusion of enjoyment. Incited 
by this, he aims his fiercest assaults, with unwearied per- 
severance, against the Divine Benevolence, in conferring 
happiness. To the utmost extent of his power, he pre- 
vents, disturbs or destroys the happiness which God confers 
upon His creatures. Into the cup of felicity, prepared for 
His creatures, by the munificence of the benevolent Crea- 
tor, this foe of God and happiness, whenever he may, 
infuses sin, disorder, pain and death, and then urges upon 
the victims of his malignity, deep and oft-repeated draughts 
from the poisoned chalice. From these destructive out- 
rages upon the creatures of God, no benefits result to 
himself — none are expected by him to result. His own 
anguish is not mitigated, his own lost dignity is not 
retrieved, his own miserable condition is in no degree 
ameliorated. Malice alone is his motive. Revenge 
against Him whom he had insulted, against Him from 
whom he had revolted, against whom he had rebelled, and 
who had defeated and chastised him with merited punish- 
ment: this malice and revenge are his only incitements 
to maraud upon all creation; and, so far as permitted, to 
bring confusion and woe, and desolation, into the regions 
designed for order and happiness. Nay: so far from his 
expecting any benefit to result to him, from his destructive 
operations against other creatures of God, the Devil knows, 
beyond all question, that he will but augment his own 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 251 

calamity, in proportion to the success of his malevolent 
attempts against the well-being of those creatures. For, 
whoever he may be, whether man or fiend, who disturbs 
the harmony and order of nature, who assails the peace or 
corrupts the virtue of his fellow-creatures, will find that 
he has fired a train, that, sooner or later, will take hold on 
himself, and amply avenge upon him the injury he has done 
to others. " His own iniquity shall reprove himself, and 
his violent dealing shall come down upon his own head." 
But, though this must be known by the Devil to be an 
established principle of the Divine government, and 
though his own experience has furnished him with abun- 
dant evidence of the universal application and unfailing 
efficiency of this principle, so far as his aggressions upon 
God's other creatures are concerned, yet, under the 
maddening influence of his rage against Jehovah, he per- 
sists in his outrages upon those within his reach, and thus 
heaps wrath upon wrath on his own devoted head. The 
Object of his hatred, being personally, as he knows, far 
above the reach of his utmost malignity, he meanly seeks 
to wreak his vengeance upon Him, in rendering void his 
purposes of kindness towards the creatures, upon whom he 
can operate his malignant schemes of revenge. Alas! 
that creatures are found, who, seduced by his wiles, have 
fallen into the snare and under the power of the Devil, 
and who are now enduring the terrible consequences of his 
hatred of God, and of their own folly and sin, in yielding 
to his devices ! Without their own iniquitous concurrence 
in his mischievous devices, he could have had no power 
against them; bat, having yielded themselves his willing 
captives, the Divine protection, which would otherwise have 
secured them from his malice, has been withdrawn; and. 



252 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN, 

till they "recover themselves out of the snare of the 
Devil," as through Divine grace they may, they will be 
left to his cruelty. 

6. Another trait in the Devil's character is that he is 
miserable — unutterably miserable. And, how should he 
be otherwise than miserable ! Can a being, whose moral 
nature is in a state of entire disorder, be anything else 
than miserable? Can one who has fallen from high, per- 
haps the highest eminence in which any creature could be 
placed, into a degradation so low as that in which the 
Devil is doomed to grovel eternally, avoid being miserable ? 
Can he, who once sat high in the circle of pure and happy 
spirits, but now must associate only with the corrupt, 
malignant and degraded outcasts from purity and bliss, 
fail to be miserable? Or, especially, can he who once 
basked in the smile of Divine approval, but who now 
cowers beneath the frown of righteous indignation, upon 
the face of Divine Majesty, be otherwise than unspeaka- 
bly and hopelessly miserable? In these circumstances, he 
must be miserable, though he had the right of entrance 
into, or even of residence in the highest regions of celes- 
tial glory — though he could range, uncontrolled, where 
fruitfulness, and beauty, and grandeur conspire to render 
earth a fit scene for noble enjoyment. Milton's conception 
of his state is as just as it is poetical: 

" Mc miserable ! 
" Which way I fly is hell ! Myself am hell ! " 

In his tortured bosom, " the worm which never dieth," 
exerts the rage of eternal, insatiable hunger ; and, upon 
his unsheltered head, is poured forth, in one continued 
stream, " the fire which is never quenched." Amid the 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 253 

throng of happy spirits, who enjoy perennial blessedness, 
could he be so associated, he would feel the unutterable 
torments of merited damnation ; and, while traversing the 
face of the earth or the fields of air, surrounded by their 
beauty, their sublimity and their splendor, the darkness 
of the pit would enshroud him in its horrors, and he would 
feel, in his most rapid progress, the adamantine chains of 
his fearful destiny binding him over, in sure custody, to 
" the judgment of the great day." If he have any other 
motive to action, equally urgent with his hatred against 
God, it is the goadings of the misery which allows him no 
respite, no quiet during his eternal night of anguish and 
horror. Restlessness and pain prompt to action, even 
when no hope of advantage is presented ; and such action, 
in an intensely evil being, will, in the nature of things, be 
qyH. Consequences are overlooked by despair ; and the 
hopelessly miserable rush upon action, reckless of the 
increase of anguish they may procure to themselves. 
Unutterably miserable, and utterly hopeless, the Devil 
instinctively and recklessly applies to action, not as the 
means of relief, or with any hope of advantage, but from 
sheer restlessness and impatience of pain. 

This sketch of the character of the Devil — the grand 
adversary of God and man, however imperfect it may be, 
is, we believe, in strict accordance with the Word of God 
— the only reliable source of information, on the subject, 
to which we can have access. And, if our representation 
of his character be just, how unutterably wicked must he 
be, and how formidable to man must be the enmity, by 
which he is impelled to ceaseless and unrelenting hostility 
against him ! Cunning, under the direction of superior 
intellectual powers ; deceitful, with no regard for truth; 



254 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

full of malignity both towards man and towards his 
Creator ; miserable, utterly and hopelessly miserable, and 
industrious, with a capacity for activity vastly exceeding 
any which exists among men, and as indefatigable as 
it is efficient — such a being, uncontrolled by superior 
power, could and would soon overwhelm our whole race in 
irretrievable ruin. He has malignity to prompt, skill to 
devise and activity to accomplish plans of debasement, 
and torture, and ruin for the human race, and wickedness 
and falsehood, to render him wholly unscrupulous in 
regard to the means of carrying those plans into success- 
ful execution. With this in remembrance, let us consider, 
more particularly, 

IV. His hostile proceedings against the human race. 
This part of the investigation, is what, most of all, in the 
subject, concerns ourselves ; and to this the most earnest 
attention is solicited. The final object, at which the Devil 
aims in all the influence he exerts upon men, is to involve 
them in misery, similar to that of which he is the wretched 
and irredeemable prey — to make them sharers in that 
"everlasting fire, prepared for him and his angels" — not 
for man. As this purpose cannot be accomplished, while 
men retain anything virtuous or godlike in their nature 
and character, it is, with him, a purpose equally settled, 
to debauch their principles, corrupt their affections and 
passions and demoralize their lives; and that, thus, by 
rendering them perfectly wicked, like himself, he may 
make them to be abandoned of the Divine protection, 
and left helpless in his hands, to be sharers of his woe, as 
they are of his wickedness. He knows that, in propor- 
tion to their aberration from the path of rectitude, will be 
their privation of enjoyment ; and that, could he seduce 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 255 

them wholly from their allegiance to God, their unhappi- 
ness would be complete, and, consequently, the great 
original design of their creation would be defeated. Hence, 
he is unwearied in his endeavors to induce them to fill up 
'the measure of their sins. But, should he fail in the 
accomplishment of this, his main design, he will strain 
every nerve to lessen, as far as possible, the amount of 
their enjoyment, and to accumulate upon them as many 
cares, anxieties and afflictions as their Great Protector 
will suffer to come upon them. Witness the case of holy, 
patient, upright Job. Unassailable in his religious and 
moral integrity, Divine Providence, with a view to the 
rendering of Job a signal example, to all future ages, of 
patience and integrity, under the most varied and severe 
afflictions, and of securing to him ample compensation for 
all he suffered, permitted the malice of the Devil to dis- 
play itself in the infliction of every agony save guilt, 
despair and death. And certainly he improved his license 
to the utmost. How the Devil proceeds, in his attempts 
to corrupt and destroy ; or, failing in these, to disquiet and 
afflict men, is what remains to be considered ; and, 

1. He employs direct temptation, for the former purpose 
and with a view to the securing of the latter. By this we 
mean, that he tempts men directly to the performance of 
some act, or the indulgence of some passion or appetite, 
which is known to be sinful, by the party tempted. Often, 
it is the case that men can assign no other reason for their 
perpetration of a crime, than that they had a strong 
inclination to perpetrate it ; while every reason which 
presented itself to the mind, in relation to it, earnestly 
dissuaded from it. Very often, temptations of this sort, 
offending not only against every applicable reason, but 



256 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

against natural propensity and all the habits of previous 
life are experienced. These temptations, whether yielded 
to or resisted, are phenomena in the experience of many, 
and require an origin and agency without and apart from 
the mental operations of the tempted person. We have 
known a case, in which a person, who had been educated 
in an utter horror of profane language, who had lived to a 
period beyond middle life, without ever having employed 
an expression of that kind on any occasion, while entirely 
alone, with no exasperation of feeling, nay, with more than 
ordinary calmness and devotion of spirit, was suddenly 
incited and all but irresistibly compelled to the utterance 
of blasphemies, that might have shocked a veteran in this 
odious vice. The temptation was promptly resisted, but 
was repeated through the lapse of nearly an hour, with a 
pertinacity and an urgency which were exceedingly 
annoying. Who can account for an experience of this 
kind, without supposing the agency of a wicked spiritual 
being, who could immediately operate upon the mind? 
We, certainly, cannot. The tempted often know that the 
course, to which they are incited, is not only wicked, but, 
in every respect, injurious to themselves — that the grati- 
fication promised will be slight and momentary, while 
degradation, loss of peace and interminable remorse and 
corroding anxieties and apprehensions will follow upon 
that gratification. Would man, bad and foolish as he may 
be, thm tempt himself? We speak not of those whom 
habit has rendered slaves to vice ; but, of him, who is just 
entering upon a vicious course — still free from the 
dominion of masterful habit, still sufficiently clear-sighted 
to perceive the pernicious tendency of the course indicated 
by the temptation. And, yet, the temptation is urged 



the devil And his enmity to man. 257 

With a force all but irresistible ! This life, with all its 
respectabilities, its comforts and its perpetuity, and heaven 
itself are in one scale— - the indulgence of a passion, say 
lust, covetousness or revenge in the other ; who does not 
perceive to which side reason and prudence and conscience 
must adhere? And> yet, the temptation is often so 
strong as to bear them all down ! Must there not be 
supposed a coadjutory or, more properly, a principal force, 
apart from the tempted person himself, to account for this 
Wholly unphilosophical tendency in human nature ? So 
thought the framers of our system of criminal jurispru- 
dence. That grave system of practical wisdom recognises 
the "Instigation of the Devil," in those crimes upon 
which it visits the extreme of punishment, for the safety 
of society. Pain, disgrace and hell-torments eternal, 
stand forth, in dismal array, as the sure consequences of 
yielding to the temptation presented ; and, yet, though 
the advantage promised by the temptation is known to be 
of very slight importance, and as evanesoent as it is trivial, 
still the temptation is often so urgent as to, put the 
sternest integrity to a severe trial, and to, overcome those 
who have less firmness of virtuous purpose. Such tempta- 
tions are often resisted and repelled, time and again — 
still returning, after every repulse, with added force and 
urgency ; till, despairing of ultimate victory in their own 
strength, the tempted either yield and are undone, or 
call for aid upon Him who is able to deliver those who 
flee to Him for help. 

2. The Devil employs the circumstances, in which men, 
are placed, as instruments of their temptation to evil. The 
diversity of his operations, in this class of temptations, is, 
so great that it is impossible to bring them into distinct. 

1 I 



258 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 

view in a brief Discourse. Suffice it to remark, that there 
is scarcely a situation, in which man is placed, that is not, 
by this subtle adversary of man, rendered a fruitful source 
of temptation. Our most favorable, as well as our most 
embarrassing circumstances are thus employed by him, 
with equal address and efficiency. In the sunshine of 
prosperity, he lies in wait, amid beautiful flowers and in 
pleasant lawns, to strike his deadly fangs into the vitals 
of the gay and thoughtless; and, in the gloom of adver- 
sity, he hovers over the scene, adding horrors to the 
gloom. He renders the busy, bustling multitude the 
instruments of mutual contamination, and of reciprocal 
suffering. He haunts the shades of retirement, filling 
the cell of the recluse with images of vice. He turns 
the tide of youthful ardor and vigor into the channels of 
dissipation and riot, and oppresses the aged with despon- 
dency and fretfulness, by means of their lassitude and 
their infirmities. The rich he swells with pride, and lulls 
into a false confidence, by means of their abundance; 
while he renders querulous against Providence, and envi- 
ous of their more fortunate fellow-creatures, those who are 
in straitened circumstances. And, as he uses the circum- 
stances of men as the means of their moral perversion, 
and their consequent ruin or disquiet, so does he seize 
upon every peculiarity of temper, every prejudice of edu- 
cation and every leading bias of his nature to work evil 
to man. The aspiring spirit he will hurry on, by the 
impulse of ambition, to the invasion of others' rights, no 
matter how much of sorrow, of poverty, privation and 
bloodshedding may be involved in their enterprises. On 
the other hand, he prevails on the gentle, quiet and meek- 
spirited to yield up their dearest rights and often their 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 259 

most sacred principles, rather than be involved in the 
struggle and conflict necessary for their maintenance. 
Those in power are too often, under the influence of this 
secret but efficient adviser, induced to stretch prerogative 
to a wanton abuse of power, and the oppression of the 
subject; while those whose duty it is to obey are often 
led on by the Devil to insubordination and rebellion 
against the mildest and most equitable authority. Sys- 
tems of Government both in Church and State, lovely for 
their symmetry, invaluable for their well-proved utility, 
and consecrated by their age, have been rased, to their 
foundations, by the lust of power, in rulers, or the 
intractableness of the people, excited and led on by this 
implacable foe of beauty, order and happiness. Influenced 
by him, kings have sacrificed their crowns, and their heads 
too, rather than surrender a supposed prerogative which 
was oppressive to their people. And, under the same 
infernal impulse and guidance, the people have torn up 
the dykes of law and order, and let in, upon themselves, 
an overwhelming tide of anarchy and ruin, in defense of 
supposed rights, which, if ascertained and established, 
would have been pernicious rather than beneficial. The 
Devil well understands that the maintenance of all indi- 
vidual rights is utterly incompatible with social safety and 
peace; and there is nothing that more effectually serves 
his malignant purpose than the embroilment of a society, 
in relation to a right of questionable validity and utility. 
The sanguine and self-confident he drives headlong upon 
the precipice of presumptuous temerity; while he plunges 
the fearful and faint-hearted into the abyss of depondency 
and despair. He assures the former of impunity, in any 
course which he may have chosen to pursue ; and affrights 



260 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN* 

the latter, with imaginary dangers, even in the path of 
duty. He fills the fancy of the credulous, with supersti- 
tions, so grossly absurd as might almost move the mirth 
of an idiot; while, to the skeptically-disposed, he represents 
the clearest and best-established truths as being deficient 
in rational credibility. Nor is it matter of any serious 
importance to this artful enemy of mankind whether* he 
keeps man from truth, by too much facility of faith or too 
little; for, his great purpose is accomplished by one equally 
as by the other. He knows that man can degrade his 
humanity, wander from the way of righteousness and 
stumble into perdition, as effectually by going on in 
the darkness of unbelief, as by following the most erratic 
ignis fatuus, that ever beguiled a simple soul to the bot- 
tomless pit. Human nature is not more degraded, nor 
society more injured, nor God more blasphemed by the 
most absurd superstition, that ever gained currency in the 
world, than by unreasonable and obstinate skepticism or 
unbelief. Even the sanctuary of God, its rites and the 
Word of God itself, are often, in the hands of this artful 
deceiver, the instruments of mischief to man. To persons 
peculiarly constituted, or peculiarly educated, it is a fre- 
quent ruse, with him, to represent attention to the public 
ordinances of the sanctuary as the whole of religious duty, 
and as securing salvation to those who punctually render 
such attention: while others are taught %j him to regard 
such attention as no part of religious duty, nor, in any 
way, needful in order to salvation. The former are taught, 
by him, to expect the Divine approbation on account of 
external performances alone — the other, on the contrary, 
he makes to believe that these performances are not at all 



THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MAN. 261 

required, under a spiritual dispensation, in which " love is 
the fulfilling of the law," and in which worship, to be 
acceptable, must be " in spirit and in truth." Some he 
inspires with an exclusive regard to doctrines, while pre- 
cepts are repudiated, as of no obligation on Christians; 
but he persuades others that it is no matter what doctrines 
are believed, if the heart and practice are regulated by 
correct moral precepts. In a word, it is his favorite plan 
to divide what God, in His word, hath joined together; and 
to fix a degree of attention on one of the parts, which 
properly belongs only to the whole of the system. 

But, even when he despairs of a final triumph over the 
virtue of a Christian, or of the consequent ruin of that 
christian's happiness, such is the intense malignity of his 
nature that he will squeeze, into the cup, of that chris- 
tian's enjoyment, every drop of bitterness that he can. 
Nor is the virulence of his enmity, or the industry of his 
exertions remitted, till man becomes, through death, unal- 
terable in goodness, and unassailable in bliss. Never, till 
then, will man be beyond the reach of his artillery. The 
Christian may, and, if faithful, will be protected, by that 
" shield of faith," by which are quenched all the fiery darts 
of the Devil: but, if, at any time, that shield be suffered 
to fall from the hand, those fiery darts will take effect — 
fatal effect, if the wounds they inflict be not healed with 
the sacred balsam of the Saviour's blood. We should, 
therefore, be ever on our guard. We should never forget 
nor neglect the orders of our Great Captain, to " watch 
and pray, that we enter not into temptation." Our 
enemy is subtle, is malignant, is indefatigable. In our 
own strength, we are utterly incapable of waging success- 



262 THE DEVIL AND HIS ENMITY TO MANV 

ful warfare against him. It behooves us, therefore, to be 
incessant in our applications to Him, who has promised to 
His faithful people, who look to Him for succor, that " no 
weapon that is formed against them shall prosper," and 
that He will "bring them off more than conquerors;" 
and crown them, as victors, in His everlasting kingdom. 



DISCOURSE VII. 

THE FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN, AND ITS LEGAL CONSEQUENCES. 

By the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. — 
Rom. v. 18. 

In a former Discourse, we attempted to delineate the 
character and condition of man — such as he was when he 
came from the hand of his Creator. We represented him, 
on Scripture authority, as dwelling in the garden of Eden 
— as being holy, harmless, undefiled, free from any stain 
of sin, any bias to ungodliness, with all the powers and 
passions of his nature sweetly harmonizing in the accom- 
plishment of the will of God — as enjoying intercourse 
and favor with God, and, with these, all the happiness of 
which his nature was susceptible — as secured in a per- 
petuity of these ineffable advantages, on the sole condition 
of continued fidelity to the obligation he was under to 
God. Too soon, alas ! was this delightful Eden to cast 
him forth from her blissful bowers ! Too soon were her 
pleasant walks, for want of tendance, to be overgrown with 
poisonous weeds and cumbering brambles, and infested 
with loathsome- and noxious reptiles! Too soon did man, 
by rebellion against his Sovereign Creator, draw an 
impassable line of separation between him and her delight- 
ful haunts, at the same time, excluding himself from the 

163, 



264 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

radiant beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and envelop- 
ing himself in the cheerless gloom of Divine displeasure : 
— henceforth to wander, in the world without — an unblest 
exile, pursued by the curse of his Creator ! Too soon did 
he, by transgressing the law of his probation, incur the 
"judgment to condemnation," upon both himself and his 
posterity, by the infallible award of his righteous Judge. 
Of this deplorable change, in the condition of man, it 
becomes now our painful duty to treat ; and, in doing so, 
we shall conform to the following plan : viz., 

I. Consider the nature of the offense spoken of in the 
text: 

II. Inquire what is to be understood by the judgment 
to condemation, which came upon all men ; and, 

III. Vindicate the propriety of that judgment. 

I. We are to consider the nature of the offense spoken of 
in the text 

In our investigation of this point, it will be proper to 
recur to the substance of some of our remarks in a former 
Discourse. This will be done in as brief a manner as 
possible. Man, as we there attempted to prove, was 
created with those powers, which at once fitted and 
indicated him to be a free and accountable moral Agent. 
His nature would have been wholly unaccountable on any 
other supposition ; for he not only felt conscious of the 
power to choose freely between two opposite courses of 
conduct, but perceived that one of these courses was 
wrong and the other right, and that it was his duty to 
choose and pursue the right, and to refuse and avoid the 
wrong course. This power of choice and of moral dis- 
crimination, and this perception of moral obligation, both 
constituted and pointed him out as a free, accountable, 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 265 

moral agent. From the fact of his accountability resulted 
the correlative fact that there was an authority to which 
he owed obedience, and to which he must render an 
account, for the manner in which he acquitted himself of 
his obligation. This authority could be none other than 
that of Him who had called him into existence, and 
endowed him with those powers which constituted him an 
accountable being. From the nature of the relation, sub- 
sisting between the creature and his Creator, and from the 
extent of the obligation implied in or imposed by that 
relation, it clearly follows that there could be no other 
limits to the obedience, which might be justly required of 
the creature, than those which are marked by moral fitness. 
Whatever, therefore, was not contrary to the principles of 
abstract right, might justly be enjoined by the Creator, as 
the criterion of the creature's fidelity. And, in the infinite 
rectitude of the Creator, there was absolute security that 
nothing abstractly wrong would be imposed. In making 
trial then of the fidelity of His creatures, God could be 
bound to no particular rule, with regard to the terms He 
should impose. We suppose, however, that the circum- 
stances of the imposition might tend to extenuate or 
enhance the guilt of the offense, if man should be unfaith- 
ful to his obligation in the matter. If, for instance, the 
duty enjoined were extremely difficult of performance — 
if the effort required, for that performance, were pro- 
portioned to the utmost ability of him upon whom the task 
was imposed — if some important sacrifice were required, 
some painful self-denial enjoined — then the circumstances 
of the imposition might plead somewhat in extenuation of 
the crime, though by no means in exculpation of the 
criminal. On the contrary, if the duty required was sim- 



266 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

pie and easy of performance — if no arduous exertion was 
necessary in complying with the requirement — if no 
painful sacrifice, no rigid self-denial was imposed, then the 
guilt of the offender would be greatly enhanced. Indeed, 
it seems to us that every one must perceive that the mag- 
nitude of his offense would be in an inverse proportion to 
the greatness of the effort required in the performance of 
the duty enjoined upon him. We make these observa- 
tions, because some who have more just claims to wit than 
to common-sense attempt to throw ridicule upon the 
Scripture account of the Fall of man, because that account 
represents his condemnation as consequent upon his eating 
an apple, as they flippantly designate the fruit of the tree 
of knowledge ! Did these scoffers ever reflect that God 
had a perfect right to select just what test He pleased, for 
the trial of His accountable creatures ? Did they ever 
take the trouble to consider that the smallness of the pro- 
hibition, by which God was pleased to test the fidelity of 
man, was a striking proof of His goodness ? Or, did they 
ever consider whether this very circumstance were not 
calculated to aggravate the criminality of the offender, 
who, restive under so very slight a restraint, violated his 
obligation to his Benefactor and Sovereign. 

Having premised these things, we proceed to the con- 
sideration of the offense, which brought condemnation upon 
the first man and all of his posterity. God, when He had 
created man, placed him in a situation abounding with 
everything necessary to his subsistence and comfort. 
Every appetite was regaled, by an object appropriate to 
its peculiar nature — every passion was soothed, by some- 
thing which corresponded to its character. Intellectual 
and spiritual enjoyments were showered upon him, with 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 267 

bountiful profusion. The whole of creation was placed 
before him, and he was authorized and cordially invited to 
a free indulgence of every desire — with only one small, 
one inconsiderable restriction. The fruit of one solitary 
tree he must not eat, he must not taste, he must not touch. 
This restriction was sanctioned by the fearful denunciation, 
"In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die I" 
This sole privation was to be the test of his fealty. By 
this, he was to be proved, whether he would be faithful in 
his obedience to his Maker and Sovereign. There was 
nothing obscure, nothing intricate or difficult of compre- 
hension, in the terms of this prohibition. They were, in 
fact, fully comprehended, by those to whom they were 
prescribed. That Eve understood them, is manifest from 
the answer she made to the serpent, when he commenced 
his attack upon her fidelity. " Of every tree of the gar- 
den," says she, " we may freely eat; but, of the fruit of 
the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, we may not 
eat; for God hath said," etc. Could such a command, so 
fearfully sanctioned and so well understood, be violated 
by man? How shall we account for a fact so strange, that 
a being, whose moral principles were immaculately pure, 
whose freedom of choice and of action was unquestionable, 
and whose enjoyments were so adequate to the demands 
of his nature, should, and for so small a gratification too, 
violate a plain command of his acknowledged Sovereign, 
his bountiful Benefactor; and that, too, notwithstanding 
the assurance, full before him, that death would be the 
consequence of his fault? Perhaps it will be sufficiently 
accounted for, by the fact, that, in any given case, an 
accountable being must be able to choose either the right 
or the wrong; and that man was tempted to a wrong 



268 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

choice, by a being whose subtlety has never been rivaled. 
To suppose an incapability of choosing either right or 
wrong, would, in the case where such incapability existed, 
disqualify the party, laboring under it, for accountability. 
Allowing this to be so, it might happen, in a thousand 
cases, and in this for one, that it would be impossible to 
assign any other reason for the choice of an accountable 
agent, but simply that he willed it It appears, however, 
that, in the case of the first parents of mankind, the 
motion to rebellion did not originate in the heart of man. 
A being whom, in our last Discourse, we brought under 
your notice, seems to have looked with malignant, perhaps 
envious feelings upon the happiness of the human pair, 
and to have determined on attempting their destruction. 
For this purpose, he selected, from among the creatures 
familiar to man, one which was well known to be remarka- 
ble for sagacity, to be the instrument of his satanical 
design. Whatever creature this may have been, whether 
a serpent, as our translation of the Scriptures has rendered 
the original, a creature of the monkey species, as some 
suppose, or some other creature, we are not concerned now 
to inquire. It is enough to observe, that, whatever creature 
it was, it was merely the instrument employed by the 
Devil ; who, probably, from the circumstance of his having 
employed a serpent as his instrument on this occasion, 
received, in the sacred Scriptures, the appellation of " Old 
Serpent." His attack was planned with subtlety, and 
with an accurate knowledge of human nature. He did 
not deem it prudent to assail the united forces of the first 
pair. He knew that society, in any enterprise, inspires 
caution, confidence, and consistency. His policy was to 
* divide and conquer" — a policy he and his disciples have 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 269 

always since pursued; and, too commonly, with success. 
He deemed it most feasible, too, to make his first attempt 
where there was most sensibility in the subject, and, perhaps, 
where there would be most influence in the example. He 
chose to commence his operations by assailing the woman 
when alone. He managed his attack, as might have been 
expected, with great address — avoiding, at first, anything 
that might shock the piety of Eve. He seems to have 
aimed at making her believe that either God had not laid 
an interdict upon the tree of knowledge, or that the inter- 
dict was inconsistent with the general license He had given 
to man, to eat freely of all the trees of the garden. He 
says to her, "Yea, hath God said, <ye shall not eat of every 
tree of the garden?' This is not an affirmation that 
God had laid any prohibition upon man, but a question 
asked, in a manner that intimated a doubt whether He 
had. But, the woman repulsed this insinuation, by assur- 
ing the deceiver that there was such a prohibition, couched 
in terms the most explicit possible, and perfectly consistent 
with the privilege of general indulgence, secured to man 
by the Divine grant. Driven from this position, the 
Devil took ground for a bolder, more direct and, alas, for 
man! a more successful attack. He assures the woman 
that, though the fruit of the tree of knowledge is inter- 
dicted, the penalty will not be inflicted on her, in the 
event of her taking and eating it. He says, " Ye shall 
not surely die." He seems to say, 'This denunciation is 
an idle menace — a mere bugbear, to frighten the timid 
and fainthearted.' Finding his bold blasphemy listened 
to without horror, by his too facile auditress, he proceeded 
to asseverate that the prohibition involved a privation of 
the most important advantage, and to insinuate that God 



270 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

had imposed it from sheer, ungenerous caprice, if not from 
selfish ambition. "God doth know," says the tempter, 
"that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods, 
knowing good and evil." Ah ! what a snare was here laid 
for the woman ! She was assured that, by violating the 
command of her Maker, she not only would incur no 
danger, but be immeasurably exalted in dignity, and vastly 
enlarged in point of privilege. Milton, with much plausi- 
bility, supposes that, to render the temptation more 
effective, the serpent is made to assure Eve that he had 
eaten of the forbidden fruit, not only without experiencing 
the threatened penalty, but with the immense advantage, 
that speech and reason were conferred upon him by its 
influence. The inference was obvious, that, if eating that 
fruit had wrought such great and ennobling changes upon 
a creature of so vastly inferior nature, it must exalt her 
and Adam, if they should test its efficacy, to the highest 
pitch of elevation in the scale of being. Be this as it 
may, it is certain that the tempter did succeed, in bringing 
Eve to call in question the truth of God, and in inspiring 
her with ambitions thoughts of rising to eminence and 
attaining to godlike knowledge, by eating of the forbidden 
fruit. " When the woman saw that the tree was good for 
food, and a tree to be desired, to make one wise, she took 
of the fruit thereof and did eat." Thus was one of the 
heads of the human race seduced from allegiance to God, 
by the pernicious influences of diabolical temptation; but, 
the point, at which the Old Serpent aimed, was not yet 
gained. Had Adam continued steadfast in his obedience, 
the woman might have perished in her own deceiving, and 
God could have provided another help-meet for him, as 
easily as He had provided the one now cast away and ruined 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 271 

by her transgression. The race of man was not yet ruined. 
But, we are soon, too soon, alas! told that the woman "gave 
unto her husband, and he did eat." No deception was 
practised upon Adam. He does not pretend that there 
was any. He says, on his examination for the offense, 
before his righteous Judge, "The woman, whom thou 
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did 
eat." St. Paul assures us that the "man was not deceived." 
What, then, could have influenced Adam, with all his 
senses about him, to commit so heinous an offense, and, 
thereby, incur so terrible a calamity to himself and his 
posterity? Milton very justly, we think, as well as beau- 
tifully, ascribes his grievous dereliction of duty, — the 
insane destruction of himself and his posterity, to the 
influence of his wife. He says that Adam was 

" Not by stronger reason moved, 
"But fondly overcome by female charms." 

The offense of Adam, it was, that achieved the destiny 
of wretchedness and ruin for the whole human family. 
The offense of Eve alone could not have produced it. 
"By his offense," on account of his transgression, "judg- 
ment came upon all men unto condemnation." He being 
the origin and federal head of the human race, God would 
have found means to secure to him a holy and happy 
progeny, notwithstanding the disobedience and ruin of his 
wife, had he continued faithful to his allegiance to his 
Creator and Sovereign. But, when he sinned, he poisoned 
the very source and fountain of human existence; and, 
by his single transgression, involved his whole race, as 
well as himself, in guilt, depravity and misery. That this 
is a correct view of the subject, is, we think, obvious from 



272 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

the language of the text. The apostle does not say, 'By 
the one offense of the prime parents of the human family, 
all are brought under condemnation,' but "By the offense 
of oneP Alas! that he, who was "created in the image 
of God," holy and happy, to whom the destiny of a world 
was entrusted, should have relinguished, to female bland- 
ishments and influence, his high dignity, his moral 
rectitude, his peace and the well-being of millions on 
millions of his race! In every age, men have proved 
themselves to be the legitimate sons of uxorious Adam 
in this particular. Would that women would less fre- 
quently follow the example of Eve, in using their influence 
to draw away their devoted admirers from religion and 
from God! We proceed, 

II. To inquire what is to be understood by the judgment 
unto condemnation, which came upon all men. 

By judgment, here, we are to understand judicial award 
or decision ; and this supposes a judicial investigation, by 
proper authority. This authority must have been either 
original or delegated ; and, if original, it must have been 
the authority of that Being who claimed obedience, of 
man, as His right, and that Being was God, the Creator 
of man. We have no reason to believe that any delegated 
authority presided in the trial of offending and rebellious 
man — nay, we have undeniable evidence that God Him- 
self presided. Hence, the sense of the text seems to be 
this — 'When man rebelled against God, when he dis- 
obeyed the Divine command, God entered into judgment 
with him ; and, on his being fully convicted of the offense 
charged against him, awarded sentence or judgment of 
condemnation against him and all his unborn posterity V 
By condemnation, is to be understood a formal and 



FIEST TKANSGRES8I0N OF MAN. 273 

authoritative recognition and declaration of guilt, and a 
denunciation of the punishment due to such guilt. The 
judgment spoken of in the text, then, embraced all these 
points, both with regard to the personal offenders and 
their whole race. Adam and Eve stood convicted of 
actual, personal and voluntary transgression of the com- 
mand of God, and were, consequently, declared guilty, 
and were sentenced, as such, to suffer the penalty annexed 
to that law which they had so transgressed. But the 
offspring of this guilty pair stood convicted of the crime, 
only as they were included in their parents, and not as actual, 
personal and voluntary transgressors. And we are fully 
persuaded that the sentence of punishment denounced 
upon them, must have been directed against them only as 
they were contained in the loins of their parents; and, that, 
consequently, they would have had no more consciousness 
of guilt, or of the suffering denounced in the penalty, than 
they had had volition in the crime of violating the law. 
We know that " the judgments of God are according to 
truth ;" and this could not have been the case, had He 
declared guilty of actual, personal and voluntary trans* 
gression, the unborn and unconscious progeny of Adam 
and Eve, or sentenced them to personal and sensible suf- 
ferings, as a punishment for a sin, in which they could 
have had no voluntary participation. We would here call 
attention to the characteristics of that guilt which was 
incurred by the "one offense" of man ; and, 

1. It was the guilt of having introduced a disastrous 
disturbance, of the order and harmony which the Creator 
had established, into the world which He had created. 
And, it was such a disturbance, especially, in the moral 
order and harmony, so established — by far the most 



274 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

important department of that order and harmony ! We 
say, that it was especially a disturbance of moral order and 
harmony ; but it was not exclusively so. Physical nature, 
throughout its whole course probably, felt its jarring influ- 
ence — to some extent we know it did. The earth was 
cursed, on account of it : so, that, instead of yielding its 
fruits, as it previously did, to the agreeable industry of its 
inhabitants, it required, in its cultivation, for the means 
of subsistence, the arduous toil of man. "In the sweat 
of thy face, shalt thou eat bread," was a part of the sen- 
tence, pronounced against offending man. We have no 
doubt, moreover, that the pestilential vapors, the fatal 
miasma, that so often sweep over devoted districts, throng- 
ing their graveyards with their victims, have their origin 
in that pernicious disturbance of order of which man was 
found guilty, in the " one offense." And, how heavy this 
guilt ! Who can estimate its weight ! To throw into 
confusion the most beautiful order, the most delightful 
harmony — to obstruct the current of abounding good, and 
to open, upon the sensibilities of creatures meant for hap- 
piness, the fountains of conflict, of pain and of " all the ills 
that flesh is heir to!" — How oppressive the guilt of having 
introduced such disturbance into the order and harmony 
of nature. 

2. It was the guilt of self-destruction. Man destroyed 
his moral beauty, when he committed the " one offense," 
of which the text informs us he was convicted. But, as 
we shall, on a future occasion, discuss this point somewhat 
particularly, we shall not now dwell upon it. Nor, shall 
we here do more than barely observe that man destroyed 
his life, both spiritual and physical, by his " one offense," 
bringing upon himself and his posterity spiritual and 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 275 

physical death. But, it may be proper to remark, that as 
a consequence of his disturbance of moral and physical 
order and harmony, he destroyed his own enjoyment of 
existence and that of his posterity : so that trouble arose, 
to him and to them, as naturally and as surely " as the 
sparks fly upward." To what goading internal conflicts, 
what agonizing pains of body, what disappointments of 
hope, what frustrations of favorite plans, what infidelity 
of trusted friends, what bereavements of objects that were 
inexpressibly dear to the affections, what malice of enemies, 
what corroding apprehensions of coming, inevitable death, 
is humanity subjected, by this one heinous offense ! And, 
oh ! how enormous the guilt, of such hideous self-destruc- 
tion ! 

3. The guilt, of which man was convicted, for his " one 
offense," was that of questioning the veracity of the God 
of Truth ; or, as one of the Sacred Writers plainly and 
emphatically expresses it, of "making God a liar." Had 
the denunciation of God, against the transgression of which 
man became guilty, been implicitly and fully credited by 
man, can we believe that he would have committed the 
offense ? The supposition seems to us wholly unreasona- 
ble. And, how monstrous, on the testimony of a creature, 
such as the serpent must have seemed to the woman, to 
call in question the truth of the infinitely perfect Creator, 
to whom it was impossible to lie ! 

4. It was the guilt of ingratitude, against a Benefactor, 
who, without any view to personal advantage, had bestowed 
upon man his existence and all the various enjoyments 
which rendered that existence so perfectly happy. Men 
esteem ingratitude, for the little favors they can confer 
upon each other, and which, too often, are conferred from 



276 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

very questionable motives, as among the blackest of the 
social offenses of which man can be guilty. How over- 
whelming, then, must have been the guilt of ingratitude 
to the purely benevolent " Giver of every good and per- 
fect gift," of which man was made the favored recipient ! 

5. Finally, it is the guilt of rebellion against the right- 
ful Sovereign of the universe. Who, that attributes 
universal creation to. God, can question His absolute right 
to govern the universe ? The right results, by the clearest 
and most indubitable consequences, from the act of Crea- 
tion. The offense of man was a practical denial of this 
right — was opposition, direct opposition to it; and the 
principle of the offense was so clearly rebellion against 
God, as an attempt to dethrone Him, or to subvert His 
dominion would have been. The offense of man, then, 
however unimportant the act itself, abstract^ considered, 
can be regarded in no other light than as of vast magni- 
tude, of unutterable turpitude ; as, whatever impugns the 
authority of the universal Sovereign violates and pours 
contempt upon the highest and most sacred obligation 
that can be predicated of any creature. And, who, con- 
templating the disturbance of order and harmony, in both 
the moral and physical world; the self-destruction of 
man ; the insulting impeachment of the Divine veracity ; 
the base ingratitude, and the flagrant rebellion involved 
in this " one offense of man," but must feel that no dis- 
astrous doom of the offender, could exceed the heinousness 
of his guilt ? 

The punishment awarded, to the condemned offender, 
was death — 1. A privation of the favor and of the image 
of God, which constituted spiritual death, which if con- 
tinued, would have been death eternal. 2. The seeds of 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 277 

mortality were sown in the corporeal frame of the offender; 
and, we doubt not that, if there had been no interposition 
on behalf of man — if a ransom had not been found for 
him, the doom of mortality would have been consummated 
in him on the very day on which he transgressed ; and, 
in that event, his ruin, in soul and body, would have been 
complete and irretrievable — he would have been delivered 
over to " the bitter pains of eternal death." Nothing can 
be more evident than that, in that case, the offspring of 
Adam and Eve would have shared in the punishment, in 
precisely the same way in which they participated in the 
offense. From all this, it appears that the "judgment 
unto condemnation" declared Adam and Eve guilty of 
personal and voluntary rebellion, and sentenced them to 
death, both physical and spiritual; and, that their pos- 
terity, being included in them, were involved in their 
guilt, and doomed to participate in their punishment, 
without being conscious of that guilt, or sensible to the 
pain of that punishment — just as they had been uncon- 
scious and without volition in the offense. 

What a fall was this of man ! From the favor of God, 
to be plunged into His displeasure ! To be barred out 
from all intercourse and fellowship with Him, for the 
enjoyment of whom they were designed and qualified ! 
To be driven out from His presence, which is life and joy 
to the spirits which are permitted access to it ! To be 
stripped of immortality, and become the prey of worms 
and rottenness ; and to have no prospect, beyond this life 
— so troubled, so brief and ending so fearfully — but what 
was overcast with threatening clouds of vengeance, ready 
to disgorge upon him their horrid contents, and whelm 
him in utter and eternal perdition"! These were some of 



278 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

the fearful consequences of an indulgence — for the grati- 
fication of an appetite, which, at best, could afford but a 
momentary pleasure, and to satisfy the cravings of an 
ambition, lawless and extravagant in its aspirations, were 
all these frightful and ever-during evils incurred. And, 
alas ! how like our first parents are too many of us, their 
unhappy children ! How common it is, that men rush 
upon all the horrors of eternal perdition, rather than to 
forego an indulgence, which they know beforehand will be 
quite unsatisfactory and can endure but a moment, or to 
balk an ambition, the success of which, they must know, 
will be wholly unsatisfying I We return, from these 
reflections, to the subject in hand. We have, in this dis- 
course, dwelt chiefly on the judicial decision, upon the 
first trangression of man, and only hinted at the punitive 
consequences, moral and physical, to which the offenders 
had subjected themselves, by their transgression. These 
we design as the subjects of future investigation. It now 
remains, 

III. To vindicate the propriety of the judgment £ ,we have 
been considering. 

In doing this, two points, entirely distinct in their 
nature and bearing, will require our attention. 

1. Was the "judgment unto condemnation" proper, 
considered in relation to the actual offenders ? We shall 
say the less on this point, as we have already had occasion 
to speak of the indisputable right of the Creator to test 
the fidelity of His creatures, by any rule of conduct He 
might see proper to prescribe ; provided there be nothing 
in that rule essentially wrong. We have also observed, 
and, indeed, it follows, as a necessary consequence, from 
the doctrine just advanced, that it was the indispensable 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 279 

duty of man to conform to the rule, which his lawful Sov- 
ereign had laid down for the government of his conduct. 
We now observe, further, that it was the unquestionable 
prerogative of the Sovereign to sanction His law by any 
penalty that might by Him be deemed proper and neces- 
sary to secure the objects of His government — provided 
the severity of the penalty should not transcend the mag- 
nitude of the guilt incurred, by transgressing the law, of 
which it was the sanction. We add, that it would be 
clearly just that that penalty should be inflicted on an 
offender ; in as much as he lay under no necessity of per- 
petrating the offense, and was apprised of the consequences 
he should incur by his disobedience. It would be difficult, 
we think, to conceive of any penalty too severe for an 
offense, of so heinous a character and such aggravating 
circumstances as that which we are now considering. By 
the bounty of his Creator, man was surrounded by every 
enjoyment reason could ask or temperance enjoy. The 
prohibition, by which his fidelity was to be tried, was sim- 
ple and of easy observance. The majesty and goodness 
of God ought equally to have restrained him from dis- 
obedience. He was apprised of the consequences which 
would result from transgression ; and, hence, his gratitude, 
his loyalty, and his fears should have restrained him. 
Every influence, of passion, of reason and of religion, was 
arrayed in opposition to the licentious appetite which led 
him to sin. His transgression was pride, was intemper- 
ance, was ingratitude, was unbelief, was impiety. Who, 
then, can doubt the propriety of the "judgment unto con- 
demnation," so far as the actual offenders were concerned ? 
Surely no one can entertain such a doubt, who is properly 
impressed with the claims which God has upon the fidelity 



280 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

of His creatures — no one who is concerned for the purity 
of human morality and piety. We cannot hesitate a 
moment to pronounce the "judgment unto condemna- 
tion," which went against our offending progenitors, 
perfectly equitable and proper. 

2. The second point, which demands our consideration, 
is, 6 whether the "judgment unto condemnation," as it 
concerned the unborn and unconscious posterity of the 
actual offenders, was according to strict propriety?' Let 
us beg you to consider what we have said, in a former part 
of this discourse, on the manner in which their posterity 
were embraced in this "judgment unto condemnation." 
It involved them in no more consciousness of guilt, 
threatened them with no more sense of the punishment, 
contemplated in the judgment, than they had had volition 
in the offense, which had incurred the judgment. And, 
if there was such an exact correspondence, between the 
want of personal agency in the commission of the offense, 
and the unconsciousness of guilt and suffering denounced 
by the judgment, it appears to us there does not attach 
the slightest censure to the judgment, as wanting in equity. 
We readily allow that, had Adam been allowed to propa- 
gate his posterity, while himself and they were under 
condemnation, for an offense in which they had had no 
voluntary participation, — in which case they must have 
been born to personal guilt and personal sufferings, as the 
consequences of that offense : then, there would have been 
crying injustice in the judgment. But, we contend that 
this could not have occurred under the administration of a 
Being, the "habitation of whose throne is justice and 
judgment." That it did not occur in this case, we hope 
to make manifest on a future occasion. What concerns us 



FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 281 

now is to acquit the Divine proceeding of injustice, in 
passing sentence of condemnation upon the unborn pos- 
terity of Adam and Eve, for the offense which these 
primogenitors of mankind committed; and this, we think, 
is done by the scriptural view we have taken of the 
manner in which their posterity were involved in that 
sentence. 

We go farther, and insist that it was unavoidable that 
the posterity of the offenders should bear the same rela- 
tion to the "judgment unto condemnation" and to the 
punishment denounced in it, that they bore to the offense 
itself. Being included in their parents, when these parents 
fell under the displeasure of God for their offense, and 
when they incurred the "judgment unto condemnation," 
it was impossible to place this included posterity out of the 
range of that judgment and of that punishment. But, 
we go still farther, and affirm, that there was much kind- 
ness in the arrangement, which embraced the offenders 
and their posterity in the same "judgment unto con- 
demnation." Since, had not the latter been included in 
that judgment, it would have been impossible that they 
should have had any personal existence; as it is incon- 
ceivable that two guilty and corrupt rebels, against the 
Divine government, should be made the means of peopling 
the earth with a race of innocent, holy and loyal creatures, 
and, as, unless they were included in the condemnation, 
they could not share in any plan of recovery, devised in 
behalf of the guilty parents. But, on the supposition that 
God would put into operation a plan to restore the offend- 
ing parents to the Divine favor, it would be of incalculable 
importance that their unborn posterity should so far par- 
ticipate in their condemnation, as to entitle them to share 



282 FIRST TRANSGRESSION OF MAN. 

in the benefits of that plan. In this way, and in no other 
of which we can conceive, could they have an actual per- 
sonal existence. God, on this supposition, would have con- 
cluded them all in a state of condemnation, that He might 
have mercy upon them all. From all this, it appears to 
us that the judgment of God, which involved all men in 
this condemnation, for the offense of one, was, as are all 
His judgments, wise, and just, and good. 

We shall now conclude with a few obvious reflections 
on the doctrines advanced : 

1. It is certain, from the fact, that we, the offspring of 
offending Adam, do exist, that God has "found a ransom" 
for the offenders; as, unless such had been the case, he 
would have fallen at once into everlasting destruction, and 
we should have perished in him. And, as this is the case, 
we have each of us a probationary career to run for our- 
selves, and must each of us answer for his own conduct, 
in his own person, to the Righteous Judge. Sin is identical 
in its nature in all ages, and under all the dispensations of 
the Divine government. Wherever it is indulged, it will 
incur the "judgment unto condemnation," and will inflict 
death. 

2. How diligently, if this be so, should we avoid sin, 
and how earnestly should we seek for deliverance from the 
guilt of sins already committed! How eagerly should 
we seek for deliverance from the dominion of those habits 
and corruptions which enslave us to this pernicious foe to 
God and man! Deliverance from sin is indispensably 
necessary, in order that we may, here, enjoy the approba- 
tion of God, and that we may be counted worthy, at last, 
to stand before the Son of man, and enjoy " the pleasures 
that are at His right hand forevermore." 



DISCOURSE VIII. 

THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF MAN'S ORIGINAL 

TRANSGRESSION. 

By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. — Rom. v. 12. 

In our last discourse, we endeavored to lay before you 
a just, though imperfect statement of the original trans- 
gression of man, and to explain the fatal influence which 
that transgression had exerted upon the legal relation of 
the human race to the Deity. We represented man as 
violating a plain, an easy, a well understood command of 
his acknowledged and rightful Sovereign — having, at the 
time of doing so, the power to keep his allegiance to his 
God unviolated. We, farther, endeavored to show that the 
necessary consequence was that he was involved in con- 
demnation; and that his posterity, as they were included in 
the transgression without their own volition, were included 
in the condemnation, without any consciousness of such 
condemnation. This, we attempted to prove was just, 
unavoidable and hypothetically benevolent ; inasmuch as, 
unless they had been included in the condemnation, they 
could not have shared in any plan for the recovery of the 
actual transgressors, and as these transgressors could not 
have been the instruments of peopling the earth with a 
righteous posterity, to have excluded their offspring from 
a participation in the consequences of the crime, would 

283 



284 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

have precluded their personal existence altogether. On 
this occasion, we contemplate a more extended survey of 
the mischievous consequences of the first offense of man. 
Unfortunately for man and his posterity, what he suffered 
in his legal relation to God, was far from being all. There 
were real evils, of the most formidable character, both 
moral and physical, which followed in the train of this 
original transgression. And, let it be observed, that whair 
ever evils should befall the actual offender, whether moral 
or physical, they must be entailed on his posterity; for, 
it is inconceivable that, without a continued miracle, any 
being should be able to propagate a race with qualities 
essentially different from his own. Let it be observed, 
however, that we do not speak of qualities which are 
accidental to an individual — as is the holiness, produced 
by the Spirit and grace of God — but of those which are 
constitutional in the nature of such individual. Thus : it 
is inconceivable that a being, naturally and constitutionally 
holy, should propagate a race of unholy, impure beings ; 
or that one, naturally and constitutionally corrupt, should 
propagate a pure and holy offspring. This being pre- 
mised, we shall now proceed to the investigation of the 
text ; and shall attempt, 

I. To show what that sin is which is mentioned in the 
text: 

II. Explain the term death, and show that it was intro- 
duced into the world by sin, and, 

III. We shall draw some obvious inferences from the 
doctrines advanced under these two heads of our dis- 
course. 

I. We are to attempt to show what that sin is which is 
mentioned in the text 



of man's original transgression. 285 

We begin our remarks on this point, by observing that 
we understand, by the term sin, as here employed, not sin 
in general, but that particular transgression of the Divine 
law, which was perpetrated by the federal head of the 
human race ; whereby its moral nature was corrupted in 
its source — inducing that state of things indicated by the 
Sacred Writers, who, in speaking of the moral state of 
man, employ such phrases as "carnal mind" — "body of 
sin" — " old man, with his affections and lusts," etc. The 
pestilential advent of sin into the world, and its universal 
diffusion throughout the moral nature of man, are abund- 
antly evidenced by that moral depravity, that spiritual 
corruption which characterize human nature ; and, which, 
among divines, have received the appellation of " original 
sin." The existence of this depravity and corruption, of 
the moral and spiritual nature of man, whatever questions 
may have arisen in regard to its origin, and however the 
pride of philosophy may wince at the fact, are as undenia- 
ble as the existence of man. That we may the more 
readily understand the subject, it may not be amiss to 
define the term rendered sin, especially as it is a remarka- 
bly significant one. We are informed, by those who 
understand the etymology of the word, that it is borrowed 
from the practice of shooting with an arrow, and signifies 
to miss the mark. Its application to moral subjects is too 
obvious to need any particular exposition of it. Whatever 
falls short or flies wide of the object for which we were 
created, must, therefore, be sin. As, then, we were made 
to be happy and to glorify God, so far as we fail in either 
of these purposes, we miss the mark — we sin against the 
law of our being, and against its infinite Author. It will, 
upon examination, be found that, in reference to both of 



286 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

these particulars, the human race are grossly perverted 
from the important purposes of their existence. Every 
individual, of that unfortunate race, exhibits a character 
derogatory to his Maker, and abounds in the most melan- 
choly evidences that happiness is not, in his present 
condition, the result of his circumstances. His whole 
mind and conscience — his mental and moral powers are 
all perverted, debased, and defiled. And trouble is his 
natural inheritance. But, it will be proper, if not neces- 
sary, to consider this painful subject somewhat particularly; 
and, 

I. The understanding of the natural man is darkened, 
so as to discern very imperfectly, if at all, the great truths 
of religion. The leading and all-important doctrine, that 
there is a God, is either rejected altogether, or received 
in a way that amounts to much the same thing. The 
idea of the Divine existence, which floats in the mind of 
the natural man, is so confused and faint, or so grossly 
erroneous, as to prevent any beneficial influence from its 
being entertained. The natural man has no abiding 
impressive conviction that there is a God, glorious in holi- 
ness, the " rewarder of them that diligently seek Him," 
and the " revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth 
evil." His views of the Divine nature and government 
are superficial, transient and self-inconsistent. Men in 
this state, taking their character of Deity from the pre- 
vailing tone and temper of their own minds, and from the 
nature of the circumstances in which they happen to be 
placed, conceive of a God who is wholly indifferent to 
man, all kindness or all wrath ; so that, at one time they 
are disposed to say with the contemptuous Pharoah, " Who 
is the Lord, that 7" should obey His voice ?" or, at another 



of man's original transgression. 287 

time, to imagine, with those described by one of the 
Sacred Writers, that " God is altogether such an one as 
themselves," or that, if there be any difference, it is only 
in degree, not in quality. With what complacency may 
they not contemplate themselves while under this flatter- 
ing persuasion ! To be like God, is the highest point to 
which the ambition of a creature can possibly soar, and 
promises all the advantages that can be expected from 
the friendship of the Deity. This satisfaction is, to the 
natural man, extremely short-lived. Soon he languishes 
into the paralyzing opinion of Epicurus, " That God is too 
exalted to interest Himself in the little affairs of this 
insignificant world :" so that all things are, in his opinion, 
surrendered up into the hands of blind Chance or inexora- 
ble Fate, to be driven forward to a fortuitous result, or to 
be dragged by fatal necessity to a destiny, possibly favora- 
ble — probably otherwise — but certainly not under the 
direction of intelligence. What could be more gloomy 
than to imagine a world, such as ours, without the super- 
intendence of a being, wise and powerful enough to preside 
over its movements and influence its destiny ! None, 
surely, but the self-convicted rebel could relish a doctrine, 
fraught with such hideous consequences. At other times, 
the natural man is disposed to compliment the benevolence 
of the Deity, at the expense of every other moral per- 
fection of His nature. ' Surely,' he will say, ' a Being of 
infinite goodness will not punish His frail, short-lived 
creature with eternal misery, for conduct to which the 
nature of that creature strongly inclined him — a conduct 
which in no way affects the interest or the happiness of 
the Creator.' He seems not to know that God is the 
guardian of the purity, order, harmony and happiness of 



288 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

the universe ; and that He is bound by the nature of that 
relation, to punish, in the most exemplary manner, every 
one whose course of conduct is calculated to impair any 
of those invaluable interests. Again, at other times, when 
misfortune and disappointment have soured his mind, the 
natural man views the Divine character through the gloomy 
medium of his own feelings, and bitterly complains that 
God is a hard master, an inexorable tyrant, who sinks 
every other quality in a gloomy determination to bow to 
His iron rule every creature that He has made— to exact 
of them an impracticable service, and then punish them 
with implacable and relentless cruelty for their unavoida- 
ble disobedience to His requirements. In a word, the 
Divine character is not steadily and consistently seen by 
the natural man, in its own light ; but, is either mutilated 
or disguised, or seen in different lights at different times 
and in different circumstanoes. A steady, serious con- 
templation of God, " in his whole round of rays complete," 
would render him too uneasy to allow of his indulging in 
it. The God of the Scriptures is quite too perfect and 
too much concerned in the transactions of man, to allow 
the natural man to be at ease with Him ; and, hence, the 
avidity which he discovers to make or imagine unto 
himself gods like himself. It is true, however, that he 
can speculate on the Divine perfections, with clearness, 
precision and propriety, as he may on any other subject 
which the intelligence of others has brought under his 
notice ; but, it is obvious, from his general conduct, as 
w r ell as from the manner in which he appears to be affected 
by his speculations on this important subject, that his 
views of the Divine character are rather the stores of his 
memory than the fruits of his understanding, or the con- 



of man's original transgression. 289 

victions of his judgment ; and, of this, we are persuaded, 
he will himself be fully convinced, if he will calmly and 
impartially look into his own mind. Nay, at the very 
moment that he is eloquently descanting on the Divine 
perfections, his mind revolts from the theory his memory 
has enabled him to construct and defend so successfully. 
Indeed, such is the darkness and perverseness, of the 
understanding, in the natural man, so gross is his stupidity, 
in regard to Divine things, that not only the eloquence 
of others, but even his own, fails to produce a proper 
impression concerning the Deity ; and, while others may 
be informed and profited, he retires from the exercise with 
no more real intelligence, on the subject he has discussed, 
than falls to the share of the school-boy, who has recited, 
from memory, an oration on the principles of eloquence. 
And, how should it be otherwise ? Does not the Wisdom 
of God assure us that "the natural man understandeth 
not the things of the Spirit?" — that "he cannot know 
them because they are spiritually discerned ?" The fore- 
going remarks, drawn from the experience of fallen 
humanity, in every situation in which it has been placed,. 
is merely a comment on this declaration of the apostle. 
And, if the Divine character is misunderstood, by the 
natural man, is it at all surprising that the laws, the gov- 
ernment, the providence and the grace of God should be 
misunderstood likewise ? Is it not to be expected that, 
if we mistake the character of an agent, we shall err in 
estimating his actions ? 

The natural man does not more egregiously err, con- 
cerning God, than he does concerning himself. His esti- 
mate, of his own character and situation, is as wide from 
the truth, as self-inconsistent and as indistinct, as is that 

19 



290 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

which he has formed of the Divine nature and govern- 
ment. The ice-encircled regions of the South pole are not 
more truly a terra incognita, than is his own heart to the 
natural man. He knows neither the springs of his moral 
conduct, nor the proper character which belongs to it. In 
regard to his situation, he is equally in error — imagining 
it better, or worse, or, at least, different from what it really 
is, or making an appropriation of it which it was not 
intended and is not calculated to have. Let us be a little 
more particular, in our observation on this subject. How 
prone is the natural man "to think of himself more highly 
than he ought to think!' 5 How commonly do men, whom 
grace has not renewed into conformity to God, arrogate to 
themselves a meritorious distinction on account of some 
quality which they imagine themselves to possess exclu- 
sively, or, at least, in a degree of perfection peculiar to 
themselves! And, indeed, there is hardly any man, no 
matter how deficient, but thinks himself to possess some 
advantage which sets him up ab<?ve the rest of his species. 
The absurdity of this proud miscalculation would appear, 
in a strong light, could we exhibit the various pretensions 
to superiority which distinguish different men* Some 
ground their claims on extensive reach of thought, on 
sprightly genius, on quick perception, on a discriminating 
judgment, on a retentive memory, on the number of 
books they have read, or of the countries they have 
seen: — others, on a handsome person, a fine voice, 
great muscular power or activity: — others, on their 
succession to a title, the adventitious relation they 
bear to great men, the condescension of great men, in 
admitting them to their society, their own elevation to 
posts of honor, no matter whether they were raised to 



of man's original transgression. 291 

them by their merit, came to them by accident, or wound 
their tortuous way into them, by the meanest sycophancy, 
the lowest intrigue or the vilest corruption : — others, on the 
possession of wealth, whether inherited from their parents, 
acquired by their own skill and honest industry, filched 
from the feeble hold of the ignorant and unsuspecting or 
wrung by extortion, from the needy and oppressed. Some 
claim a distinction for the dress they wear — perhaps for 
the color of a ribbon or the richness of a lace, the chasing 
of a bracelet or the brilliancy of its jewels: others, for 
their contempt of whatever other men admire; and some 
for their very vices. Not a few are proud even of their 
virtues, imperfect as they are ; and value themselves for 
estimable moral qualities, in which there are few whom 
they excel. But, let the particular matter on account of 
which they think themselves advantageously distinguished 
be what it may, men are prone, not only to think they 
excel in it, but that excellence, in that particular matter, 
is to be preferred before any other. Such is the perversion 
of the understanding, in the natural man, with regard to 
his own character compared with that of other men! 

Let us next examine his views of the character he bears 
in the sight of God. If he do not adopt the unguarded 
saying of Pope — 

" In spite of pride, in erring Reason's spite, 
" One truth is clear — whatever is, is right," 

with the licentious interpretation too often given of it, he 
will, at least, persuade himself that there is such a pre- 
dominance of virtue in his principles, dispositions and 
conduct that, on the whole, he must stand approved by 
the Judge of all ; or, that his peculiar regard for some one 
point, in religion or morals, must more than counterbalance 



292 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

all his defects or aberrations in regard to other points- 
He "pays tithes of mint, rue, anise and cummin ;" and, 
therefore, supposes he may "neglect the weightier matters 
of the law, justice, mercy and the love of God." Or, he 
is honest; that is, he pays all his debts, and may, therefore, 
dispense with the obligation to be merciful and pious. Or, 
he is benevolent; and justice and truth, temperance and 
piety are of so little comparative importance that their 
absence may be considered abundantly compensated by 
the presence of this commanding virtue. Another instance 
of the perversion of the understanding, in the natural man, 
is an almost universal proneness to strike out for itself a 
path, in religion and morals, distinguished by some absur- 
dity so glaring as to be obvious to all observers, and to 
render it difficult, for those not involved in the error, to 
credit the sincerity of such as embrace it. This censure 
does not fall on those only whose means of information 
are so limited as not to allow of their forming correct 
notions on these subjects. It lights equally upon the men 
of reputation in the world for learning and wisdom: so 
that, you shall find men who are deeply skilled in Science, 
in Arts and Letters, grossly ignorant in religion and 
morals, and addicted to some incredible and preposterous 
superstition, at which even the vulgar revolt. 

Once more : The false estimate, which is placed on the 
comparative importance of what concerns the present life 
and that which is to come, is a striking proof of the disor- 
dered state of the human understanding. We see men 
anxiously forming plans for temporal aggrandizement, 
watching patiently for favorable opportunities to execute 
those plans, plunging into difficulties, encountering toils 
and hardships, submitting to privations and exposing 



op man's original transgression. 293 

themselves to formidable dangers, in striving to bring 
those plans to a successful issue. If they succeed, we 
see them elated ; while all around them congratulate them 
on their success; but, if they fail, both they and their 
friends sink into melancholy and despondency. Such is 
the importance ascribed, by the natural man, to things of 
this life! But, the interests of the soul — the concerns 
of eternity are neglected and forgotten. If, however, the 
importance of being religious be forced upon the attention 
of unconverted men, they often retain so much indifference 
on the subject as to take up with the plan of religion 
adopted by their forefathers, without taking the trouble to 
examine whether or not it be according to truth and cal- 
culated to produce a happy result; and this second-hand 
plan of religion, they follow, in so heartless a manner, 
with so little concern what the issue will be, that they 
furnish abundant evidence that religion is viewed by them 
as a matter of mere social decency, or a thing of course, 
rather than as the condition on which their best interests 
are suspended. Compare the industry, the feeling, the 
anxiety which are so strikingly exhibited, in adventures 
that have worldly emolument for their object, with the 
sloth, the indifference, and the unconcern with which 
religious duties are performed; and you must see that a 
decided preference is given to the former. Could any- 
thing more strongly evince the weakness and perverseness 
of the natural man's understanding than this astonishingly 
false estimate ! How justly has the poet described the 
absurdity of it in the following beautiful lines: — 

" And, is it in the flight of threescore years 
To push eternity from human thought ! 
To bury souls immortal in the dust ! 
A soul immortal wasting all its fires, 



294 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

Spending its strength in strenuous idleness, 

Thrown into tumult, i*apturedor alarm'd 

At aught this scene can threaten or indulge, 

Resembles Ocean into tempest wrought, 

To waft a feather or to drown a fly." — Dr. Young. 

The understanding being thus blinded and perverted, it 
follows as a necessary consequence, that the reasonings, 
drawn from its perceptions, must be vague, imperfect and 
frequently wrong; and, of course, the judgment to which 
they lead uncertain or unrighteous. Hence, also, errors 
in faith — errors of such capital importance, that, to them 
is ascribed, in the Sacred Scriptures, the final perdition of 
those who perish. Unbelief, or wrong belief is a natural 
fruit of a perverted understanding. The doctrine to be 
believed is misunderstood, or the evidences which support 
it are viewed in a superficial or partial manner, or are 
wholly overlooked; or objections, having no other weight 
than that which is imparted to them by passion and preju- 
dice, are opposed to the evidence, and so an improper 
result is obtained, and either an erroneous interpretation 
is given to the doctrine, because it is misunderstood, or it 
is discarded altogether, from overlooking or weakening the 
evidence by which it is supported, or from allowing weight 
to objections which are the mere offspring of prejudice and 
passion. 

Thus have we exhibited an imperfect, though, it is 
believed, a just view, as far as it goes, of the degeneracy 
and darkness of the mind of fallen man. Let us next 
turn our attention to the state of his heart — the seat of 
his passions, affections and volitions. In our investigations 
here^ we shall be liable to frequent errors and embarrassing 
uncertainties; for the "heart is deceitful, above all things 
— who can know it?" This is one of its most prominent 



of man's original transgression. 295 

characteristics. It deceives the man himself, in a thou- 
sand instances, secretly proposing to itself one motive for 
its choice and assiduously laboring to make it be believed 
that it is influenced by another of quite a different charac- 
ter. Thus the proud man will give his property, to forward 
charitable purposes, will devote himself to the service of his 
country, or, when it is fashionable, will be exemplary for 
his observance of religious duties, and will labor to make 
himself, as well as others, believe that he is influenced by 
benevolence, love of country and love of piety, when, in 
fact, his sole object is the praise of men. Simplicity and sin- 
cerity, though strangers to the heart of the natural man, are, 
nevertheless, affected by him ; so that one would think, from 
his professions, as he himself often does, that nothing was 
farther from his purpose than practising a cheat. So 
extremely subtle are the deceitful workings of the unre- 
newed heart, that it requires much observation and skill 
to ascertain their precise character. 

But, however deceitful and, therefore, difficult to be 
known the heart of the natural man may be, there are 
some of its characteristic operations too manifest to be 
concealed or disguised. One of these is its alienation 
from God. That the natural man loves not God, is a fact 
so obvious as to need no labored or farfetched evidence to 
prove it — a little attention to experience will sufficiently 
establish the fact. How seldom is God the object of his 
thoughts ! With what eagerness and facility is the thought 
of Him extruded from the mind, to give room for other 
and more agreeable meditations! How cold, how exani- 
mate are the sensations excited by the idea of God, which 
is casually thrown into the mind, by some extraneous 
agency ! How slight is the interest that is taken, in what 



296 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

concerns His honor or the accomplishment of His will ! 
And, is this the way we are affected towards a beloved 
object? 0, no! With what delight do we call up and 
dwell upon it ! How unwillingly exchange our meditations 
on that subject, for any other that could occupy the mind ! 
How glowing and animated the feeling raised in the mind 
by such meditations! And how jealous are we, in regard 
to everything which concerns the honor or the advantage 
of those we love ! Nothing is considered hard, which we 
can do, that will advance either. Can the natural man 
doubt, for one moment, that he is without love to God, 
after examining himself by these criteria? He must see 
that he has not one of the marks which distinguish those 
who love Him. He must see that he is alienated from 
God in his affections. But, he not only does not love God, 
he is moreover inimical to Him. Abstractly, he may not 
be conscious that he is an enemy to God; but, relatively, 
in regard to His laws, His providence, and His grace, he 
proves himself to be, and must himself be aware that he 
is, to all intents and purposes, an enemy of the most 
decided and inveterate character. He presumptuously 
disobeys the Divine law, and revolts at the sanctions by 
which it is enforced — repines at such dispensations of 
providence as disappoint his hopes, impair his prosperity 
or inflict upon him suffering — and slights or rejects the 
Divine plan of salvation. And, indeed, how should it be 
otherwise, since he~is under the influence and control of 
that "carnal mind," which "is enmity against God," 
which " is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be?" 

Love of the world is another striking feature, in the 
character of the natural man. By love of the world, we 



of man's original transgression. 297 

are not to understand that degree of regard to the things 
of the world which is necessary to our seeking a competent 
and even comfortable subsistence. But, we are to under- 
stand a fond attachment to the wealth, the honors and the 
pleasures of the world — a dependence on them for happi- 
ness — a devotion of our attention and our affections to 
them. That the world predominates in the heart of the 
natural man, is a truth of such notoriety that to prove it 
would be an insult to any reflecting man. 

But strong as the love of the world may be, it is a sub- 
ordinate passion. Love of self is the paramount passion 
in the unrenewed heart. This, however, is sinful only 
when it is excessive in degree, or perverse in its opera- 
tion. When it takes the place of the superior affection 
which God, our Creator, Preserver and Redeemer justly 
claims of us, it becomes excessive. When it interferes 
with our moral or religious duties, or with the rights of 
others, it is perverse in its operation. And, who will deny 
that it is both excessive in degree and perverse in its 
operation in every fallen, unrenewed man ? None, surely, 
who have witnessed with how little ceremony God and 
His law are affronted, or, at least, disregarded — the rights 
of other men infringed and even outraged, — and moral 
and religious duties disregarded and left unperformed, if 
they be not repudiated, for the sake of even a momentary 
indulgence of appetite or passion, or the gratification of 
merely a whim! — none, surely, who have witnessed the 
gross irreligion, the insolent pride, the peevishness, the 
griping parsimony or the sordid intemperance which dis- 
grace human nature ! 

Consequent on this depravity of the passions, is the 
corruption and the perverseness of the Will, in the natural 



298 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

man. That which is most loved will be chosen, even 
though the understanding should be so far enlightened as 
to see the impropriety of the choice, and though con- 
science should loudly remonstrate against it. Self and 
the world are chosen, as his portion, by the natural man ; 
while God and righteousness are rejected by him. This 
choice is not made casually, and under the influence of 
some extraordinary temptation, but habitually and obsti- 
nately, and against the clearest dictates of reason, and the 
most pressing remonstrances of conscience : so, that, it is 
frequently the case that, though men see and " approve 
things that are excellent;" and, by the most decided 
assent of the mind, " serve the law of God :" yet, with 
their flesh — their carnal natures, — their corrupt affec- 
tions, their perverse wills, they " serve the law of sin." 
Whoever has attempted to reduce himself into subjection 
to reason and religion, has found, by painful and repeated 
experience, that the most formidable obstacle that lay in 
his way was the perverseness of his own will : so that the 
justness of the reason assigned, by our blessed Saviour, 
for the perdition of His disobedient hearers- — "ye will not 
come unto me, that ye might have life" — is made evident, 
by what he finds in the workings of his own heart. And, 
indeed, this is the last of the faculties of the soul that is 
rectified by grace. Light comes into the understanding 
of men — their judgments are rectified, but, they love, 
they choose darkness, as more congenial with the evil, the 
perverse propensity of their nature. Thus: the whole 
man is corrupted — "Every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart is evil continually." Or, if, in the unrenewed 
heart there be found any tendency to good, any desire for 
moral good, it results not from the nature of him in whom 



of man's original transgression. 299 

it is found to exist, but from that " grace of God, which 
bringeth salvation, which hath appeared unto all men" — 
from the motions of the Holy Spirit in our spirits, which 
" worketh in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure." 
That such " a manifestation of the Spirit is given to every 
man, to profit withal," we shall have occasion to show, at 
some length, on a future occasion. At present, we barely 
state the fact, that, in describing the fatal influence of the 
"one offense," upon the moral condition of man, we may 
not be thought to have exaggerated the gloom of its 
melancholy history. The truth is, that total depravity, 
utter moral ruin was the consequence of that "one 
offense ;" though, under a dispensation of recovering 
grace, we now see no instance of utter moral ruin, except 
in cases where men have resisted and " grieved the Holy 
Spirit" till He has withdrawn His gracious influence, and 
left them to hardness of heart and reprobation of mind, to 
work out their own damnation with greediness. 

We have presented the foregoing view of human nature, 
as a standing proof that "sin entered into the world" — 
that it took hold on the whole mass of humanity, defiling, 
corrupting and destroying the whole. Man, having been 
created in the image of God, exhibited, and could exhibit 
none of that intellectual darkness, none of that moral cor- 
ruption, in the affections and passions, none of that 
perverseness of will which we have ascribed to the natural 
man. But, "sin entered the world;" and, at once, "all 
the foundations" of man's moral nature, "w r ere out of 
course." And, this moral disorder still continues — a sad 
memento, a humiliating monument of the transgression 
of the Divine law, by the progenitors of the human family, 
while yet that whole family were contained in them. And, 



300 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

never can the entrance into the world, or the virulence of 
sin be rationally questioned, while mankind are character- 
ized, as they now are, by blindness of mind, corruption 
and hardness of heart, perverseness of will — selfishness, 
worldliness and alienation from God. 

II. We are to show that, by sin, death entered into the 
world. 

Death is the effect of sin, not in the same way that 
physical phenomena are the effects of the physical causes 
by which they are produced, but by means of a connection, 
between sin and death, depending wholly upon the will of 
Him who established that connection. Physical effects 
are produced immediately and necessarily by the opera- 
tion of some quality in the nature of their cause ; but the 
effects of moral causes are produced by the agency of 
some power, having control over the subjects of those 
effects. Thus: punishments are the effects of crimes; 
but, those punishments are not produced by the crimes 
themselves, but these crimes are the causes or reasons for 
which the punishments are inflicted by some power, having 
competent jurisdiction over the criminal. Death entered 
the world by sin, not as its physical effect, but as a pun- 
ishment inflicted by the Lawgiver, for the violation of 
His law. 

But, what is death? This is a most important and 
interesting inquiry; and we answer it generally — that 
death is a privation of life, and, more particularly, 

1. That it is, to the soul of man, a privation or destitu- 
tion of God, who is the life of the soul. It is a privation 
of His favor, and of the happiness consequent on the 
enjoyment of it. The experience of all men in all ages 
has gone to establish, beyond dispute, the position — that 



of man's original transgression. 301 

this world is not capable of affording happiness to man. 
Place man in any imaginable situation, in relation to 
earthly good — l combine around him all the advantages 
of health, of fortune, of fame and of friends, and, if he 
has no more than this, he will still find an aching void in 
his heart. Dr. Watts spoke the experience of all people, 
when he said, 

" Were I possessor of the earth, 
And called the stars my own, 
Without Thy graces and Thyself, 
I were a wretch undone." 

The enjoyment of the Divine favor is to be regarded, then, 
as the proper, nay, the only happiness of man. Privation 
of the Divine favor involves the loss of communion of the 
soul with God; for, it is inconceivable that God should 
admit to communion with Himself, such as had, by their 
sins, cast themselves out from His favor. Communion 
with God implies the greatest honor, the highest dignity 
to which any creature could be elevated. Men, of inferior 
station have great ambition to be noticed by those in 
exalted positions, and to be admitted to free and unre- 
strained intercourse with them. But, how slight the 
honor, of standing in the presence of kings, emperors 
and presidents, and of easy and unembarrassed inter- 
course with them, compared to that of communion with 
the King of kings and Lord of lords ! Again : privation 
of Divine favor involves the loss of that consciousness of 
absolute security, which an assurance of Divine protection 
produces, in the mind of those upon whom " the light of 
His countenance shines." In a word, privation of God, 
is what is commonly called spiritual death ; and the perpe- 
tuity of this privation would be eternal death: — it is 



302 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES. 

the death of the soul — God, being as necessary to the 
security, the dignity and the happiness of the soul, as the 
soul is to the activity and sensibility of the body. This 
death followed, immediately upon the entrance of sin into 
the world. God, offended by the transgression of His 
creature, withdrew from him the smiles of His face. God 
was holy : sin rendered man unholy; and, so, sin separated 
between man and God. Communion between them was 
broken off — the protection of God was no longer assured 
to the rebel, and the happiness resulting from the Divine 
favor, was wrecked. What a death ! How fearful ! But, 
not only was spiritual death the consequence of sin, man, 
by its fatal influence, became, 

2. Subject also to physical death. We consider this 
position susceptible of the clearest proof from the sacred 
Scriptures. Treating, formally and exclusively, of the 
resurrection of the body, St. Paul says: "As in Adam all 
die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive." Now, if 
the resurrection of the body be not the result of natural 
causes, operating in the constitution of human nature, but 
solely a fruit of the mediatorial relation of Christ to the 
human race, then, if there be any congruity in the cases 
put by the apostle, the death of the body was not the 
result of natural causes, operating in the constitution of 
human nature, but was brought upon that nature by the 
proper agency of Adam. Had death been an original 
provision, in the organization of man, there would have 
been gross impropriety in the assertion that "in Adam all 
die." It would not have been in Adam, but in the pur- 
pose and ordination of Adam's Creator, that all died. The 
apostle's double affirmation ascribes death to Adam, as its 
cause, as clearly and as fully as it ascribes the resurrection 



of man's original transgression. 303 

to Christ, as its cause. Further: we cannot conceive, if 
death were not caused by the sin of our first parents, 
why there was any necessity for Christ to accomplish the 
resurrection of the dead. He, as the second Adam, came 
"to put away sin, by the sacrifice of Himself" — to 
"redeem man from under the curse of the law" — to 
" destroy the works of the Devil." Now, if death be not the 
fruit of sin, why should He put away its dominion over its 
captives — made such by the original laws of human 
organization? Why should He "ransom man from 
death?" Why should He destroy death? His mission 
to earth was not for the purpose of instating man in new 
privileges, but, for the purpose of re-instating him in the 
privileges which were forfeited by sin. Hence, He is 
called "the repairer of the breach" — the "Redeemer" — 
the " Saviour." His offices all have reference to the inju- 
ries sustained by man in consequence of sin. And, this, 
by no means comports with His being "the resurrection" 
to man, if death was not the fruit of sin. Until very 
recently, the opinion was, we believe, almost unanimous, 
among those who received the Scriptures as a Divine 
Revelation, that the mortality of the human race was 
among the fearful consequences of the first transgression 
of man; and we can conceive no other cause for modern 
dissent to it, but that excessive deference to the acumen 
of philosophy, which has discredited more than half of that 
Revelation, because its utterances are above the capacity 
of the human mind — not to understand, but to compre- 
hend. We, however, are old-fashioned enough to receive 
the teachings of God in their plain import, whether we 
are or are not capable of understanding the whole that 
concerns them. For instance, we believe in tho facts — 



304 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

that the lame, the leper and the deaf man were relieved 
by the word of the Saviour; though we cannot philosophi- 
cally trace out the connection between the Word and its 
effects in these facts. So, also, we believe that u death 
entered the world by sin; and so death passed upon all 
men;" and, that it was "in Adam," not in the laws of 
the organization which the Creator gave to man, that 
« all died." 

It is urged, that, if physical death was a part of the 
penalty incurred by the original transgression of man, the 
terms, in which that penalty was threatened, were not 
verified by the event. " In the day thou eatest thereof, 
thou shalt surely die," was the fearful denunciation. Yet, 
man lived many days after he sinned. We say nothing 
of the different rendering of the original text, of which 
the learned tell us this threatening is susceptible — 
intimating, as we think, the beginning, not the completion 
of the process of death. We are satisfied with the text 
as it is, in reference to our present purpose, and contend 
that the import of the threatening is amply borne out by 
the fact, that man, naturally immortal, became, on the 
day that he sinned, not only death-doomed, but subject 
to tendencies leading inevitably to death. But, were not 
this a sufficient disposition of the difficulty in question, 
the fact of the instant mediation of the Son of God, and 
the indispensable necessity that man should not die at 
once, in order to the carrying into effect of the design of 
that mediation, were ample grounds for suspending the 
sentence, which would, doubtless, have been carried into 
full effect immediately, had not the mediation been inter- 
posed. He, who said to David, the men of Keilah " will 
deliver thee up," to Saul, implied, though he did not 



of man's original transgression. 305 

express the condition of David's remaining in Keilah; 
and, therefore, though the men of Keilah did not deliver 
up David into the hands of Saul, the truth of the Divine 
affirmation cannot, with justice, be impugned. So, though 
God threatened death to man, in the very day of his trans- 
gression, yet, as the mediation of the Son of His love was 
interposed, the truth of the threatening, in regard to the 
penalty even had that penalty been wholly remitted, 
instead of being only suspended, would not have been 
impeachable. Who impugns the truth of a Judge, who 
denounces death, to be inflicted at a certain hour, upon a 
convicted murderer, when the Executive authority is 
interposed to pardon or respite the culprit? No one 
thinks of doing so ; and, surely, God has a clearer right 
to exercise such a prerogative than any human sovereign 
can arrogate to himself. We think it now sufficiently 
established that death, with all the diseases and sufferings 
which are its harbingers and attendants, are the conse- 
quences @f that sin which, by man, was brought into the 
world. The predisposing influences, on which the final 
consequence depends, are to be ascribed, equally with that 
consequence, to the cause from which it results. How 
numerous, how complicated and how dreadful, then, the 
evils which followed in the train of sin, on its entrance 
into the world ! It remains, 

III. To conclude with some inferences and reflections. 

1. If sin has entered into the world, and defiled the 
whole man, how egregiously mistaken are those who 
indulge a fond conceit of the rectitude, the purity and the 
dignity of their own natures! How amazing the self- 
deception, which men practice, in giving such a coloring 
to their vices, and throwing such a vail over the corrup- 

20 



306 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES 

tions of their own hearts, as to persuade themselves that, 
let the condition of others be as deplorable as it may, 
they, at least, deserve none of the severe censures, written 
in the word of God against the natural man ! These, 
certainly, "love darkness rather than light." These have 
surely accustomed the eyes of their understanding to the 
worse than midnight gloom of that " darkness which hath 
covered the earth, and that gross darkness which envel- 
opes the minds of the people that know not God." To 
such we would say, * Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light !" Open 
thine eyes; for, now "the true light, which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world," is shining around thee, 
to discover to thee, not only the true character of thy 
evil deeds, which have, heretofore, kept thee from coming 
to the light — not only the dangers that surround thee, 
and the fearful prospect of that perdition which awaits 
thee, for thy sins, but, also, the glory of God, in the face 
of Jesus Christ, in which thou mayest read that mystery 
of redemption, that " God was in Christ, reconciling the 
world unto Himself," making provision for the salvation 
of all, who, through the light He affords them, will look 
for it to Him by faith. 0, then, no longer court igno- 
rance, either of thyself or of thy God ; but, now, yield to 
the salutary though painful influence of that light, which 
will expose to thine own view all the deformity and dan- 
ger to which sin has subjected thee. For, until thou hast 
this discovery made to thee, thou wilt not be prepared for 
the revelation of the unspeakable goodness of God, in 
giving His Son to be a propitiation for thy sins, without 
which, thou canst never exercise that faith, upon which is 
suspended the salvation of thy soul. 



of man's original transgression. 307 

2. If sin have separated between us and God, our 
spiritual life and comfort, it is impossible, in the nature 
of things, that our union with Him should ever be restored, 
unless sin be destroyed, unless we be purified and reno- 
vated in our moral natures. In order to this, we must, 
by self-denial and by bearing our cross, "mortify the 
deeds of the body," in conjunction with the influences of 
that Spirit, " which lusteth against the flesh ;" whose office 
it is to u cleanse the thoughts of our hearts," and " change 
us, from glory to glory," into the glorious image of Him 
who created us, "in righteousness and true holiness." 
This powerful operation of the Divine Spirit will not be 
performed, unless we be " workers together with Him," as 
well as believers on Jesus Christ, with hearts unto right- 
eousness. 0, then, let us, with all diligence, mark and 
follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit, joining with Him, 
in irreconcilable opposition to the whole bent of our carnal 
natures ; and let us look, by faith, for continual assistance 
from Him, in this all-important struggle. 

3. If not only spiritual death, or the loss of the favor 
God and communion with Him, but pain, disappointment, 
disease and mortality are the consequences of sin, how 
heinous must be its character in the sight of the infinitely 
benevolent God ! How malignant its influence upon 
those, who subject themselves to its power ! And how 
extreme the folly, nay, the madness, of those who cherish 
it in their bosom ! Is it thus we treat the most incon- 
siderable hostility of a fellow- creature ? Is it thus we 
connive at the most trivial inroads of the slightest 
disease ? Or, does the magnitude of the evils, which sin 
inflicts upon its victims, give it prerogative to exact our 
submission and a claim upon our affections ? We know 



308 THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES, ETC. 

that it is a maxim, the heavier the burden, under which a 
slave is made to groan, the securer are the fetters by 
which he is bound. This is a first principle in the system 
of every tyrant. Are we then, slaves to sin ? Doing the 
drudgery of that vilest of monsters? And, shall our 
wages be naught but shame, and pain, and death ? 0, let 
us no longer "yield our members as instruments of unright- 
eousness unto sin ;" but, let us look to the Son of God, 
that He may emancipate us from the dominion of this fell 
monster, that we may "be free indeed." Being thus 
delivered from " the bondage of corruption, into the glori- 
ous liberty of the sons of God," we shall pass through all 
the ills of life, not only in safety, but even with advan- 
tages growing out of those very ills. We shall triumph in 
death ; and, finally, when " the dead in Christ shall be 
raised incorruptible," the very last effect of sin shall be 
removed, and we shall be united, in the most intimate 
manner, to God, the life of our souls and the source of all 
consolation ; while the tenure, on which we hold our hap- 
piness, shall be secure as the throne of God, and lasting 
as His own eternity. 



DISCOURSE IX. 

THE INCARNATION OF DEITY IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He, also, 
Himself, likewise, took part of the same ; that, through Death, He might 
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil ; and deliver them, 
who, through fear of death, were, all their life time, subject to bondage. For, 
verily, He took not on Him the nature of angels 5 but He took on Him the 
seed of Abraham. — Hebrews, ii, 14-16. 

In our two last Discourses, we have contemplated man 
in his disobedience, his condemnation and his ruin. Dis- 
grace, guilt and misery constituted the wretched portion 
which he had procured for himself, by his ungrateful 
rebellion against his Creator, his Benefactor and his 
rightful Sovereign. The past was, to him, the scene of 
degradation, infamy and guilt — the present, of regret and 
remorse, of loss, suffering and despair; while the future 
loomed up before him in all the horrors of undefinable 
woe, immitigable and without end! The slightest know- 
ledge of himself, and of his relation to his offended 
Sovereign, must have rendered him utterly hopeless of 
ever conciliating the Divine favor, or of averting, or even 
of mitigating the calamities he had accumulated upon 
himself, by anything he could either do or suffer. Nor 
could he hope that any creature of God either could or 
would interpose in his behalf. What creature could be 
expected to commiserate the condition of man — misera- 
ble as it was— when it should be remembered that tbM 

309 



310 THE INCARNATION. 

misery was incurred by man himself, wantonly and per- 
versely, by his ingratitude to, and his rebellion against, 
the Being to whom he himself was under obligation for 
existence and all its blessings? Or, if it might be sup- 
posed that such compassion could arise in the bosom of 
any creature, what could it avail man? Where could be 
found, among creatures, even the best and the mightiest, 
the ability to propitiate the Deity in man's behalf, or to 
extricate man from the complicated ruin, in which he had 
involved himself? All that any creature possessed, 
whether of worth, or wisdom, or power, was derived from 
God, and was due to Him, in its utmost exercise. There 
was, then, nothing that any creature could appropriate to 
the purpose of averting the Divine wrath from rebellious 
man, without manifestly robbing God of His just right, by 
such appropriation. Hence it was that, among all crea- 
tures, there was no eye to pity — no arm to deliver man. 
Indeed, all loyal subjects of the Divine government would 
necessarily be arrayed against man, as a traitor to their 
own liege Sovereign. Hopeless in himself, hopeless in his 
fellow-creatures, of all ranks and of all worlds — the uni- 
verse arrayed against him — under the curse of the Divine 
law — degraded, corrupted, ruined — such was the miserable 
condition of man, as a transgressor of the Divine law! 

But, his condition was not irremediable — was not 
hopeless. There was an eye that could and did pity him. 
There was an arm that could be and was made bare to 
save him. Where least he might have expected such 
pity, such help, there they were to be found. The infinite 
Sovereign, whose law he had transgressed; the bounte- 
ous Benefactor, towards whom he had been so basely 
ungrateful ; the Holy One, who cannot look upon sin with 



THE INCARNATION. 311 

allowance, and in whose eyes man had rendered himself 
loathsome — He, it was, who had compassion on man ! He, 
it was, who " found a ransom " for man ! He, it was, who 
made bare His arm, for the rescue of man from sin and 
from its horrible consequences! This would have been 
enough to tax, to the utmost, the capabilities of man, for 
a grateful return, had the mercy, vouchsafed by Him to 
man, been shown in the mere exercise of sovereign pre- 
rogative. But, how much stronger the claim, on man's 
gratitude, since the exhibition of that mercy involved the 
profoundest condescension and the greatest sacrifice ever 
witnessed in the universe ! " God so loved the world, that 
He gave His only-begotten Son," to be "a propitiation for 
the sins of the world" — to "bear, in His own body on 
the tree," the infliction due to man's transgression. The 
sacrifice of His Son, by " the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus" Christ," was not an arbitrary devotement of the Son 
by the Father ; for, the Son was a voluntary party to the 
transaction — freely and cheerfully giving Himself up to 
this stupendous act of intervention, for the salvation of 
mankind — "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that, though He was rich, yet, for your sakes, He became 
poor, that ye, through His poverty might be rich." It is 
of the part which the Filial Divinity performed, in the 
salvation of ruined man r that our text exhibits the initial 
step and the outline. It but presents an outline — not 
entering into the details of that stupendous performance, 
but merely exhibiting to us the great Actor Himself, with 
His important end in view, and preparing Himself for its 
accomplishment, by a condescension and magnanimity 
never equaled. We shall, in the discussion of the subject, 
endeavor, 



312 THE INCARNATION. 

I. To ascertain of whom it is that the apostle predicates 
the action spoken of in the text; 

II. To understand the character of the action which is 
ascribed to this Actor; and, 

III. We shall consider the necessity and the purposes 
of that action, and the manner in which those purposes 
were effected. 

I. We are to endeavor to ascertain of whom it is that the 
apostle predicates the action spoken of in the text. 

1. It is clearly manifest, from the text, as well as from 
many other scriptures, that the Actor, spoken of in this 
place, was not a man. To suppose the contrary, would 
involve the absurdity of man's taking upon himself the 
nature of man, that he might be liable to man's destiny — 
an absurdity so gross that to argue against the supposition 
involving it, would be an insult to the most ordinary 
understanding. The only question is, whether the sup- 
position, that the Actor spoken of in the text was man, 
does involve this absurdity. To put this question to rest, 
it is only necessary to cite the text, and a few similar 
portions of Scripture — "Forasmuch as the children (he 
is evidently speaking of the human race) are partakers 
of flesh and blood. He, also, likewise, took part of the 
same; that, through death, He might," etc. " The Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us." " God sent forth 
His Son, made of a ivoman, made under the law, to redeem 
them that were under the law." He, the Word, the Son, 
is, in all these places, spoken of as existing before His 
assumption of human nature, and as existing in a state of 
proper personality. To suppose, then, that, when He was 
thus spoken of He was a man, involves the absurdity 
in question most palpably. And, as it involves that 



THE INCARNATION. 313 

absurdity, it must be rejected by every man, who is capable 
of understanding the terms in which it is stated. 

We have stated that the Actor, spoken of in our text, 
existed previously to His assumption of humanity, in a 
state of proper personality. This we infer from the fact 
that reasoning, volition and action are ascribed to Him, in 
this pre-existent state. Are not a]l these clearly ascribed 
to Him, in ascribing to Him an action, accounted neces- 
sary because of the nature of man, and in order to the 
accomplishment of ulterior purposes in behalf of man? 
Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. 
He, also, Himself, likewise, took part of the same. 
Observe ! it is not said that 'He was endowed with 
human nature/ but that He took it. The act was His 
own proper act; and, He performed it, upon His own 
volition, and from His own regard to the reasons why it 
must be done, in order to the accomplishment of the pur- 
poses contemplated in doing it. Must He not, then, have 
reasoned, and willedf in entering upon this action ? And, 
if so, must He not have existed in a state of proper 
personality ? 

2. Was He, then, a creature, of some order other than 
man ? Many have adopted this supposition. Why have 
they adopted it ? Is it because the clear teaching of the 
Bible — the only authority in the matter — inculcates it? 
Or, is it because the instruction on the subject, though 
obscure and difficult of being understood, favors it ? It 
is neither of these ; for neither of these suppositions is 
true; but it is, as we apprehend, because the pride of 
human philosophy is shocked at the unequivocally enun- 
ciated fact, that "God was manifest in the flesh ;" and, 
consequently, men have subjected the Divine teachings, 



314 THE INCARNATION. 

on the subject, to the most torturing criticism, in order to 
soothe their own cruel mortification, at feeling their 
inability to range this teaching under the banner of their 
philosophical dogmas. The difficulty is, however, only 
shifted by this management — not in the slightest degree 
lessened. If there is something above the utmost eleva- 
tion of man's reason and beyond the greatest stretch of 
human comphrehension, in the voluntary assumption 
of human nature by the Divinity, is there less difficulty 
in comprehending how a created person, no matter of what 
grade, or with what creature-powers, could incarnate him- 
self in humanity ? And, yet, this is the only alternative, 
unless we deny either the incarnation itself, or the pre- 
existent personality of the nature incarnated, in the face 
of the clearest teachings of the Bible. Our measure of 
knowledge may not be such as to justify us in pronounc- 
ing it impossible that one creature should take into union 
with its own — such as that which subsisted in the incarna- 
tion — the nature of another species of creatures, so as to 
form an individual personality in such union. But we 
apprehend it to be much easier to ascribe the power to do 
this to the Creator of all things, whose resources are 
infinite, than to conceive of its belonging to any creature. 
3. But, we are not left to depend upon the doubtful 
results of metaphysical reasonings on this important point. 
We are unmistakably taught that the pre-existing person, 
who incarnated Himself in Jesus Christ, was " The Son 
of God,"— "The Only-begotten of the Father"— "The 
Word, which, in the beginning, was with God ;" and, who 
was, as we think we have sufficiently proven, in the third 
Discourse in this series, very and true God — the Second 
Person in the Trinity in Unity of the Godhead. We do 



THE INCARNATION. 315 

not deem it necessary to enter here into the proof of this 
most important doctrine, as we consider it sufficient to 
refer to the arguments advanced in the Discourse to which 
we have referred. Thus believing, we shall be excused, 
we trust, for considering it settled that the Actor, spoken 
of in our text, was God the Son, the equal of the Father 
and of the Holy Ghost, in self-existence, eternity and 
wisdom, in power, in presence, in holiness, in goodness 
and in righteousness. Having infinite freedom and right 
to choose and act, according to the counsels of His own 
wisdom, and able, in the employment of His own proper 
resources, to accomplish any purpose, which, under the 
impulse of His goodness, His wisdom should devise. So 
that the utmost confidence, in the success of an enter- 
prise, undertaken by Him, is fully warranted. 

II. We are to endeavor to understand the character of 
the -action which is ascribed, in the text, to this Actor. 

" Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, He, also, Himself, likewise, took part of the same 
— He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He 
took on Him the seed of Abraham." The assumption of 
human nature, then, is the action in question. There are 
three very dissimilar theories on this subject, which, 
respectively, have had their advocates. These we think 
it proper to consider ; and , 

1. It has been contended that the humanity, assumed 
by the Divinity, in the person of Jesus Christ, was illusory 
— an unsubstantial appearance of humanity merely. The 
only authority for this opinion, we suppose, is the declara- 
tion that Christ '■' appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh;" 
and it is argued that, if He appeared in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, He did not appear in that flesh itself, as it 



316 THE INCARNATION. 

would be incorrect to call anything the likeness of itself. 
We suppose that this form of expression was adopted sim- 
ply to mark the difference of the Saviour's humanity, 
from that of every other individual of the human family 
in one particular alone: viz., in its being, as we are else- 
where informed it is, " without sin." The passage quoted 
does not say that ' He appeared in the likeness of human 
nature? but " in the likeness of sinful flesh." He did not 
appear in the likeness of human nature in its unfallen 
state; for His humanity was not exempt from disease 
and mortality, as that humanity was. He did appear in 
the likeness of sinful flesh; for His humanity was subject 
to the infirmities, diseases and mortality, to which sinful 
flesh was subject. His humanity, though a substantial 
reality, was but a likeness of sinful flesh ; inasmuch as it 
was " without sin." If any dependence is to be placed 
on language, and if there was not a studied intention on 
the part of the New Testament-writers to deceive their 
readers, then, the humanity of our Saviour was not a mere 
appearance — an optical illusion, but a substantial reality. 
His birth, His growth, His actions, His speech, His hun- 
ger, thirst, fatigue and sleep, and, in particular, His suffer- 
ings, death, and resurrection from the dead, all proclaim 
His humanity a reality. Nor, we presume, would the con- 
trary supposition have ever entered into the mind of any 
man, were it not that the mystery of the Divine incarna- 
tion, in human nature, is so far above the comprehension 
of the human mind, as utterly to baffle the efforts of the 
acutest and profoundest philosopher who ever attempted 
to define or explain it. And, we well know that there are 
those who affect to repudiate almost every fact and doc- 
trine in theology, which they conceive to be incomprehensi- 



THE INCARNATION. 317 

ble; notwithstanding they are hourly conversant with 
innumerable admitted facts equally incomprehensible, in 
their own experience, and in the phenomena of both 
physical and spiritual nature around them. And, whence 
is this, but from the enmity of the carnal mind which is 
so irreconcilable to the law, the government, and the 
grace of God ? 

2. The second theory is, that the humanity, in which 
the Divinity was incarnated,, in the person of Jesus Christ, 
was, in its physical and spiritual properties, exactly similar 
to the humanity of man, in his original state ; but, being 
itself the production of an act of real creation, it could not 
be part and parcel of that humanity. Now, we have no 
authority, anywhere, for pronouncing the production of 
the humanity of Christ any more than that of any other 
individual of the human race, an act of creation. It is 
merely a metaphysical conclusion, derived from the pecu- 
liar circumstances attending its conception in the womb 
of the virgin-mother. Had it been produced by an act 
of creation, why, we would respectfully ask, was it neces- 
sary to provide for it a mother, any more than a father 
among men ? Why was not that humanity created, as 
was Adam, without any maternal matrix? Could the 
mere deposition of the newly-created humanity in the 
womb of virginity establish any consanguinity between 
it and the human race ? No more, certainly, than 
to have been produced in the atmosphere would have 
made the partaker of that humanity a son of air! 
Nothing can be clearer, we think, than that, if the 
humanity of Christ was produced by a distinct act of 
real creation, it can have no proper affinity to the 
humanity of man, no matter how exactly it may resem- 



318 THE INCARNATION. 

ble that humanity in all its physical and spiritual 
properties. It is not, on this supposition, and cannot 

4 

be of that " one blood r of which God " hath made all 
men," who " dwell on all the face of the earth," but is of 
a distinct species ; yet, the whole tenor of Revelation, 
both in the Old and in the New Testaments, represents 
the Messiah as of the human family. His genealogy is 
traced through a long line of ancestors, to Adam. He is 
declared to be "of the seed of Abraham" — " of the house 
of David" — a "Son of man" — He is "the seed of the 
woman" — " the offspring of David." We are notified that 
He was only " supposed to be the Son of Joseph," but are 
assured that he was the Son of Mary. And, all this we 
are taught, without any, the slightest intimation that we 
are to understand that His humanity was produced by a 
distinct act of real creation. Was it, then, the intention 
of the sacred writers to mislead their readers ; or, is the 
humanity of the Saviour, contrary to the theory we are 
now combatting, the bona fide offspring of Adam, through 
a long line of his descendants ? We cannot hesitate as to 
which of these opinions ought to be embraced. 

3. The third theory, which we heartily adopt, is that 
the humanity, in which the Divinity was incarnated, in 
the person of Jesus Christ, was a part of that humanity 
which was propagated by Adam, the primogenitor of the 
human race. This, we think, is unequivocally and strongly 
affirmed in our text' — He took part of the same flesh and 
blood, of zvhich the children, to be rescued, are partakers — 
not a nature like theirs, but a part of the same nature. 
If it was a part of the same nature, which was propagated 
by Adam, and transmitted through his descendants to 
Jesus Christ, it was not the naturally pure, perfect, health- 



THE INCARNATION. 319 

ful and immortal nature, which Adam had before his 
transgression, but the contaminated, disordered, diseased 
and mortal nature, which resulted from that transgression. 
No descendant of fallen Adam, no one who was of the 
seed of Abraham, no son of David could derive any other 
than such a nature from such progenitors. If, in anything, 
the nature of Christ's humanity differed from that of the 
rest of mankind, the difference was not proper to that 
nature, but was superinduced by an agency external to 
itself. It did differ, in a most material particular — it 
was " without sin." The moral taint, which had diffused 
itself throughout the whole mass of humanity, was not 
found in the humanity of Christ. Was this constitutional 
and proper to that humanity ? We think not. He who 
alone can cleanse away the defilement of sin, and who 
accomplishes that great work in the case of all men, who 
finally attain to everlasting life, could, and, we humbly 
presume, did purify that part of humanity which the 
Divinity took into union with Himself, in the incarnation. 
The Incarnate One, speaking by the mouth of the prophetic 
Psalmist, says, as quoted Heh. X. 5, " a body hast Thou 
prepared me ;" and He says, in his own person, that " the 
Father had sanctified Him and sent Him into the world." 
If, as our text assures us, the Divinity, in His incarnation, 
"took part of the same flesh and blood, of which the 
children were partakers," that part must have necessarily 
been contaminated in the mass of humanity from which it 
was taken ; and, as that humanity was, in the man Christ 
Jesus, "without sin," it must have been "prepared," by 
" sanctiflcation of the .Spirit" for the inhabitation of the 
Divinity. 

How strikingly does this fact — the assumption of fallen 



320 THE INCARNATION. 

humanity, in the incarnation — illustrate the apostle's rep- 
resentation of the humiliation and privation, as well as the 
kindness of God incarnate ! " Ye know the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet, for your 
sakes, He became poor, that ye, through His poverty, 
might be rich." What language is adequate to the 
expression of this humiliation and privation! Had He, 
who was the "brightness of His (the Father's) glory, the 
express image of His person" — who "thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God," assumed to Himself the 
nature and dignity of an archangel, though the condescen- 
sion would have been infinite, He would not, by that act, 
have "made Himself of no reputation" — His assumed 
nature would have had unfallen rectitude, purity, that 
had never been sullied, and high official dignity — high, 
though derived. Or, had He assumed any rational and 
moral nature, that had never been contaminated, no mat- 
ter how lowly the grade of that nature in the scale of 
rational and moral being, there would have been inherent 
moral excellence, to elevate that nature to intrinsic 
dignity. But, to "appear in the likeness of sinful flesh" 
— to take part of the flesh and blood, of which the chil- 
dren are partakers, which had been sin-defiled, in the 
original transgression, and which needed to be prepared, 
by sanctification, ere it was fit for His assumption — to be 
"made under the law" — to be "made sin for us" — this 
was humiliation, indeed! This was impoverishment, 
astounding to imagination, staggering to faith! So stu- 
pendous, that thousands perish, in their guilt and personal 
helplessness, rather than believe a truth so utterly above 
human ideas of philanthropy. Yet, all this, or the Bible 
is a fable, was done by the Second Person in the adorable 



THE INCARNATION. 321 

Trinity, for the sole purpose of redeeming rebels against 
the Divine government, from under the curse of the law, 
violated by them. This is grace, indeed! This is not 
only "unexampled love," but, in absence of the fact, 
would be inconceivable kindness. And, indeed, it is easier 
to believe that God has shown such kindness to man, than 
it would be for man to conceive of such kindness, without 
the fact to originate the conception. And, if, to enrich 
man with eternal blessedness, the Son of God thus hum- 
bled himself — thus made himself of no reputation — thus 
became poor, how grateful should his beneficiaries be to 
Him! How devotedly should they love Him! How 
exclusively should they labor to glorify Him in all their 
faculties ! What ingratitude can be so base, so black, so 
utterly degrading as that which lightly accounts of the 
"mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ!" — which, out of defer- 
ence to the world's empty scorn, or to enjoy "the pleasures 
of sin for a season," spurns the offer of salvation which 
He procured for man, by humbling Himself and becoming 
"obedient unto death — even the death of the cross 1" 
When the hosts of heaven witnessed the humiliation of 
their Supreme Lord, it would seem that they were over- 
whelmed with astonishment. " Silence, for half an hour," 
reigned through all their wondering ranks. The ever- 
new and never-ending song of the heavenly choristers was 
suspended. All eyes were bent upon and all thoughts 
were engrossed by the wonderful phenomenon presented to 
their astonishment. The infinitely Holy One entering 
into affinity with contaminated humanity! The Supreme 
Ruler of the Universe taking the position of a slave ! 
The Lord of life hastening to death ! The Ever-blessed 

" made a curse " for man ! And, Oh! what wealth is pro- 
21 



322 THE INCARNATION. 

cured for man by this impoverishment of their Redeemer! 
Existence — repentance, saving repentance — pardon for 
sins that infer damnation — "the love of God shed abroad 
in the heart by the Holy Ghost — peace, that passeth all 
understanding" — "joy, in the Holy Ghost, unspeakable 
and full of glory" — triumph over death — and eternal 
life, with God and saints, in heaven! 

Of the process of this stupendous enactment — the 
incarnation of Divinity in the humanity — we can say 
almost nothing. We only know that the ordinary process 
of generation was entirely dispensed with: that the myste- 
rious personage, who united in Himself supreme Divinity 
and real humanity, was conceived by a virgin, whose 
condition, as such, was not changed by her becoming a 
mother. We also know that this mysterious phenomenon 
was produced by the competent agency of Him, who 
formed woman from a rib taken from the side of man — 
that from the virgin-mother were derived the materials of 
humanity, employed in the incarnation, is deducible from 
the fact, that, through her, the Man Christ Jesus, was the 
descendent of David, Abraham and Adam. The imme- 
diate and miraculous exertion of Divine agency was 
necessary in such a production of perfect humanity, 
though, as the materials employed were already in exist- 
ence, that production was not an act of creation, but an act 
of miraculous arrangement and combination. 

Will it be said that it is unworthy the Divine character 
to suppose such a union, as is implied in the incarnation, 
between the Divinity and fallen, degraded humanity? We 
are not altogether adequate to the task of determining 
what is, or is not, becoming the Divine character. Beyond 
what He, Himself, has taught us on the subject, we can 



THE INCARNATION. 323 

know very little indeed. And He has given us very 
distinctly to understand that He is far from considering 
this a dishonorable union. Besides, we know that He 
represents Himself as delighting in and considering Him- 
self honored by very familiar and close connection with 
every individual of the fallen race of mankind, who, profit- 
ing by the intervention of the incarnate Divinity, has 
secured the requisite qualification for the connection. 
Jesus said, to one of His disciples : " If a man love me, 
he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and 
We will come unto him and make our abode with him." 
In that most touching prayer, offered up just before His 
passion, in which the Blessed Saviour commended His 
disciples to His Heavenly Father, He says : " Neither pray 
I for these (His immediate followers) alone, but for them 
also which believe on me through their word, that they all 
may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, 
that they also' may be one in us; that the world may 
believe that Thou hast sent me. And, the glory which 
Thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be 
one, even as we are one : I in them, and Thou in me." 
And, all this is said in regard to men, who have been 
taken " out of the horrible pit," into which the original 
transgression had plunged the human race! Thus, it 
appears that God does not consider it derogatory to His 
character to cultivate a close intimacy with those who have 
been " conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity," 
after they have been prepared for such intimacy, by " the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." 
And, as it respects the incarnation of Divinity, in " the 
seed of the woman," we have ample assurance that He 
does not regard that as derogatory, but, as, on the con- 



324 THE INCARNATION. 

trary, showing forth, in a remarkable manner, His just and 
unequaled claims to be glorified by all intelligent creatures, 
both in heaven and upon earth. 

III. We are to consider the necessity, and the purposes 
of the incarnation of the Divinity in humanity in the person 
of Jesus Christ 

1. Man was "in bondage to the fear of death" — 
inthralled, thus, by the practices of the Devil. "By 
sin, n to which man was instigated by tho temptation of 
the Devil, " death entered into the world/* and all men 
were doomed to become its victims. Death, under any 
aspeet and in any circumstances, is revolting to those who 
live; but, there is one circumstance which renders it ter- 
rible to man — this circumstance is a consciousness of 
sinfulness of nature and of unpardoned sin. Wherever 
this consciousness is felt, death is, and must be, an object 
of fear and terror. " The sting of death is sin." And, 
this sting can goad the firmest mind to agony, and can 
poison and embitter the most delicious cup that ever com- 
mended itself to human lips. It is projected by a mighty, 
a resistless force — "The strength of sin is the law" — the 
law of God. It is this which hurls the deadly missile, with 
unerring aim and with a force which nothing can parry, 
deep into the sinner's conscience. And, sooner or later, 
every sinner feels the thrust, and trembles under the 
terrible infliction. The sensation produced by it, call it 
self-reproach, a sense of guilt,, remorse, or by any other 
name, is more agonizing to the soul of man, than " all the 
ills that flesh is heir to." It tortures the bosom in which 
its barbed fang is rankling, embitters the pleasures of this 
life and arrays death in indescribable terrors. It is an 
almost universal persuasion in the minds of men every- 



THE INCARNATION. 325 

where, that death is the period of a probationary state ; that 
it will be followed by a judicial inquisition into all the con- 
duct of accountable beings; that this searching inquisition 
will proceed with strict reference to the requirements of the 
law, given by the infinite Sovereign of the universe ; and 
that those who shall be found delinquent in regard to those 
requirements, will be consigned to sufferings far greater 
than any of which man, in his present state, can adequately 
conceive. Hence, where there is a consciousness of sin- 
fulness and unpardoned sin, these persuasions invest death 
with a character of terrible importance. The captive may 
sleep in his dungeon, and may dream of the pleasures of 
freedom, of green fields and smiling friends, as his; and, 
so may the sinner, " in bondage to the fear of death," 
sleep in his horrible prison-house, and he may dream of 
pleasure, and of hope of heaven ; but the time of awaking 
will come to both; and, as the former awakes to find him- 
self fettered and alone in his loathsome prison, so will the 
other awake to anguish and the fear of death. The whole 
human race were held in this bondage; without any possi- 
bility, by the employment of their own resources, of 
disinthralling themselves. They could not break the 
strong walls of their hideous prison-house — they could 
not buy off their stern prosecutor: the law was inexorable 
in its demands against them, crushing the iron into their 
very souls; and, Death, all hideous, horrible Death stood 
menacing them with the "judgment to come," and with 
the terrible punishment that was to follow upon them for 
their sins. 

2. The opinion, that the sacrifice of a victim could 
expiate sin, and avert the punishment due to it, has been 
almost as prevalent as those we have noticed above ; and. 



326 THE INCARNATION. 

yet, we know of no principle in moral philosophy nor any 
dictum of common-sense which would suggest such an 
opinion. Nor can we conceive how it could originate, 
unless it be a revelation from Him, whom sin has offended, 
but, who, nevertheless, is kind and loving to His sinful 
creatures. Such a victim, however, must have merit, and 
that merit must be adequate to the claims of the law which 
has been violated, in the sin to be expiated. Hence, 
though the sacrifice of beeves, and of sheep, and of goats, 
and of birds was enjoined by the Levitical law, we are 
assured, by St. Paul, that they " could not take away sin." 
They were of value only as t}^pes and shadows of the true 
victim, who was, " in the fullness of time," to " put away 
sin, by the sacrifice of Himself." They had no real, but 
important relative value — preparing the human mind for 
the stupendous exhibition of Divine love, in the sacrifice 
of the Cross of Calvary. 

We have said, that the victim, who should expiate sin, 
must have merit, and merit adequate to the claims of the 
law, whose violation rendered the expiation necessary. 
This merit no creature could have — not, as is contended 
by many, because those claims were infinite; for, we con- 
ceive that it would be unjust, nay, utterly absurd to urge 
against a finite being, such as man unquestionably is, 
claims which only a being of infinite capacity could meet 
and satisfy. Every creature is, and, in the nature of 
things, must be under indispensable obligation to devote 
all his capacities and every moment of his time to the 
service of his Creator ; and there can be no merit in com- 
plying with an obligation. Or, if merit could be predicated 
of the simple performance of duty, such merit would not 
be transferable — another could have no claim on account 



THE INCARNATION. 327 

of such merit. Besides, the worth of no creature, nor of 
any number of creatures, could meet the claims of the 
Divine law upon its violation, without those creatures 
being irretrievably ruined by their interference; as no 
creatures could recover the life which must be laid down, 
as the condition of expiation. And, it would be flagrantly 
unjust to accept the final ruin of an innocent being, as an 
expiation of the sin of a guilty one. 

The Divinity, though possessed of merit adequate to 
the demands of the law against man who had violated it, 
and though possessed of inherent and independent life, 
could not make the expiation required ; for, the Divinity 
could not die. " Without the shedding of blood, there is 
no remission" of sin. This, we are assured, is a settled 
principle, in the administration of the Divine government 
in the moral world. Hence, the Divinity could not meet 
the inflexible requirements of the Divine law, in order to 
the expiation of man's sin. Wherefore, it was necessary, 
indispensably necessary, if man should be rescued from 
the ruin in which he had involved himself, that the 
Divinity, in whom alone was adequate merit and who had 
control of life, should take into union with Himself a 
nature that could suffer death — the indispensable con- 
dition of expiation. Whether He could have effected 
that important object, by assuming the nature of any 
other creature than man, capable of death, we are, perhaps, 
not competent, by means of metaphysical investigation 
and reasoning, to determine. It is enough for us to know 
that human nature was the nature in which the Divinity 
was incarnated for that purpose. We may be in error, 
but we think it clearly intimated, in the text, and else- 
where in the sacred Scriptures, that it was necessary that 



328 THE INCARNATION. 

man should be the victim for the expiation of the sins of 
mankind. "As the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, He, also, Himself, likewise, took part of the same ; 
that, through death, He might" etc. Does it not appear 
manifest that the apostle considered the .consanguinity of 
the Redeemer and the redeemed as indispensably requi- 
site ? To us, it so appears. At any rate, the death of 
the victim was necessary ; and, in order that the Divinity 
might accomplish the salvation of man, it was equally 
necessary that He should be incarnated in a nature that 
could die. 

Our attention is now to be directed to the purposes of 
the incarnation. They are stated to be two — " To destroy 
him that had the power of death, that is the Devil — and 
" to deliver those, who were, all their life-time, subject to 
bondage to the fear of death." These purposes, and the 
manner in which they are accomplished, will claim our 
special attention ; and, 

1. It was the purpose of God, in the incarnation, to 
" destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the 
Devil." Of the Devil, and his agency in the ruin of mau, 
we have heretofore presented the opinions which we have 
derived from the Scriptures of truth. It is, therefore, 
unnecessary to occupy much time, in expatiating on his 
character and his malevolent relations to mankind, on the 
present occasion. It is enough to say, that he is a rebel- 
lious angel — probably of the highest order : that he is of 
vast power and resources, having under his control 
thousands of evil spirits : that, in intellectual capacity, 
various and abundant experience and indefatigable activity, 
he is greatly distinguished ; and, that all these vast capa- 
bilities are under the impulse and direction of implacable 



THE INCARNATION. 329 

malignity against God, and against whatever engages His 
interest. Hence, towards man, created in the image of 
God, and to glorify and enjoy Him, the malice of the 
Devil is peculiarly intense. He, it was, whose wiles 
seduced the mother of mankind, and through her influence, 
her uxorious husband, to violate the law of their proba- 
tion; and, in so doing, to bring upon themselves and 
their posterity the u curse of the law," and consequent 
"bondage to the fear of death." Hence, the Devil is 
said, in the text, to " have the power of death." He 
introduced it, by his machinations. He rules in the heart 
of the sinner ; and, by the sins to which he prompts his 
vassal, renders him the prey of death, and, through life, 
the constant slave of its terrors. 

By destroying the Devil, we are not to understand his 
annihilation, but the counter-working of his schemes, the 
subversion of his authority, the defeat of his enterprise. 
Should the sin of man be expiated, his moral nature 
restored to purity and devotion to God, should the fear 
of death be exchanged for hope in prospect of it, and 
triumph in collision with it, and, finally, should man be 
rescued from the dominion of death, and regain the 
immortality which he lost in his transgression, then, in 
the sense of our text, as we understand it, would the 
Devil be destroyed ; and, 

2. Man, who is, all his life-time, subject to bondage to 
the fear of death, would be delivered. And, this was the 
second, and, indeed, the great purpose of the incarnation 
of the Divinity in human nature. The salient movement, 
in this enterprise, was to meet the claims of the violated 
law against man, by an expiatory sacrifice, of sufficient 
merit to satisfy those claims. And, upon this first step, 



330 THE INCARNATION. 

every other depends for its availability. Next, ample 
provision was made for the renovation and purification of 
man's moral nature. Then followed assurances that would 
effectually disarm Death of his terrors, and spread over his 
ghastly features the smile of benignity and friendship ; 
and, finally, not only promises, from Him who cannot lie, 
but the restoration of the Saviour's humanity to life, give 
ample assurance that the morning will at length dawn 
upon the world, when the strong portals of Death's gloomy 
prison-house shall be thrown wide, and liberty be pro- 
claimed to all its captive inmates. "Death shall be 
swallowed up in victory." 

The manner in which these purposes were accomplished, 
by the incarnate Divinity, is the subject of our closing 
meditations, on the present occasion. It was, " through 
death," that our great Deliverer achieved His triumph 
over " him that had the power of death." It was " through 
death," that He " delivered them, who were, all their life- 
time, subject to bondage to the fear of death." His death 
was sacrificial and expiatory. By it, atonement was made 
for man. " He bore our sins in His own body on the tree." 
" He put away sin, by the sacrifice of Himself." The 
humanity, ennobled and sustained, by its intimate and 
mysterious connection with the Divinity, in the person of 
Jesus Christ, was a victim such as could meet and satisfy 
the claims of the violated law against man ; and, these 
being satisfied, a way was opened in which the Mediatorial 
offices of the God-Man might be effectively performed, in 
bringing man back to God, and in restoring to man the 
light of the Divine favor — thus subverting the dominion 
of the Devil, and delivering man from the fear of 
death. 



THE INCARNATION. 331 

Well, therefore, may the hosts of the redeemed occupy 
the days of eternity in waking the echoes of the New 
Jerusalem with their gratulatory anthem: " Unto Him, 
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own 
blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and 
His Father — to Him be glory and dominion, forever and 
ever ! Amen !" 



DISCOURSE X. 

PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. 
I do always those things which please Him. — John viii, 29. 

There is no subject more important to man than the 
religious and moral character of Jesus Christ, while He 
dwelt, as a man, among men; for, He is the only authori- 
tative exemplar, whom it is the duty, as well as the interest 
of men to resemble. The imitation of Jesus Christ is 
urged upon us, in the strongest terms, both by Himself 
and by St. Paul — the latter of whom presuming to present 
himself for imitation, only so far as he resembled Jesus 
Christ. As the Founder of the Christian System, who 
exemplified, in His own character, the tendency of the 
doctrines which He taught and of the institutions which 
He established, His character is the best and most reliable 
exposition of the religious and moral purposes contempla- 
ted, in the establishment of that system in the world. It 
is true, in moral as well as in physical science, that a 
stream does not rise higher than its fountain. Wherefore, 
whatever there is, of religious or moral excellence, that is 
found in the character of Jesus Christ, is, we may be 
assured, a product of those principles and tendencies which 
are embodied in the system of which He was the Founder, 
and of which His life is a practical exemplification. A 
member of any association, may, through ignorance, 



THE LIFE OF CHEIST. 333 

infirmity or the force of temptation, fall below the per- 
fection of his rule of life; but, we cannot conceive of one, 
who honestly aims at conformity to the laws of his society, 
rising above the requirements of those laws. Hence, we 
reiterate the persuasion that the life of Jesus Christ is 
the best expose of the character and tendency of Chris- 
tianity that is anywhere to be found. As the best and 
most perfect representation of the genius of Christianity, 
and as the exemplar, whom, individually, we are required 
to imitate, surely the life of Jesus Christ must engage our 
attention. We propose, in this Discourse, to exhibit, as 
we are able, an outline-sketch of that life, chiefly as 
regards its moral and religious aspects. For, it is only 
in these aspects that the character of a moral being can 
be pleasing or displeasing to God; and, we have a per- 
suasion, almost universal among men, that, whatever is 
morally or religiously right is pleasing to God. Our text 
is an affirmation (not a boast) of Jesus Christ, that His 
conduct was always pleasing to God, and, consequent^ 
right, in a religious and moral view. It was uttered to 
repel the calumniations of His enemies, and is fully borne 
out, as to its truth, by the most rigid scrutiny into His 
whole history. We shall take up the subject and discuss 
it, without any formal division of it into propositions. 

1. We shall first consider Jesus Christ as a Son — the 
son of His mother, and the reputed son of Joseph, His 
mother's husband. Of His conduct, in this relation, we 
have, according to our present recollection, but one state- 
ment. But that single statement covers the whole ground 
of filial obligation. He had been left behind by His parents^ 
carelessly, it would seem, on their leaving Jerusalem, on 
occasion of some festival which they had attended there* 



334 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

When they discovered that He was not in their company, 
nor in that of their friends, they returned; and, seeking 
Him in Jerusalem, they found Him in the temple, sitting 
among Doctors of the law, and astonishing those grave 
and learned men "by His understanding and answers." 
His mother remonstrated with Him, for the trouble His 
dereliction of them had occasioned to her and His sup- 
posed father. In His reply, He refers her to the higher 
importance of His mission into the world than any merely 
worldly or human interest — clearly evincing His own 
perfect knowledge of His high position and destination. 
Still, notwithstanding this reply, and the consciousness 
He displayed of His superior dignity and the importance 
of the position He had come into the world to occupy, He 
went down, to the country, with His parents, we are 
informed, "and was subject unto them" This incident 
occurred when Jesus Christ was about twelve years of age ; 
and as He did not enter upon His public career till He 
was about thirty years old, it is probable that His subju- 
gation to His parents continued eighteen years. 

Subjugation implies submission and obedience; and 
under both the Levitical and the Christian systems, was 
required to arise from reverence, or a disposition to render 
honor to the parents. Submission implies the postpone- 
ment of the will and inclination of the party submitting, 
to the will and pleasure of the party to whom the sub- 
mission is rendered; and obedience is acting by and in 
conformity to the direction of the party to whom obedience 
is paid. Thus was Jesus Christ subject to His mother and 
His reputed father. Nor could His life have commenced 
with more favorable auspices. Children, who are wanting 
in reverence for, and subjugation to, their parents afford 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 335 

the most melancholy indications, of worthless, disorderly 
and pernicious courses, through the whole of life. The 
habits of contempt and insubordination, towards those 
whom God and nature have placed in authority over 
them, qualify them to be refractory to order and rebellious 
against authority, in any society with which they may be 
connected, as well as to throw off the authority of God, 
and to withhold from Him the reverence which is His due, 
and which He imperatively claims at the hand of man. 
Whereas, reverence and subjugation to parents, in child- 
hood and youth, induce habits of thought and action which 
render a man subordinate to the authorities of the societies 
with which he is connected in future life, and which fall in, 
readily, with the claims of Deity to his reverence and 
obedience. As our great Exemplar, therefore, it was 
important for us to know that Jesus Christ " honored His 
father and mother," not only by feeling towards them a 
sentiment of veneration, but by practical subjection to 
their authority. His example to man would have been 
materially defective, if this had been wanting in His model 
life. He was, thank God, a little child, a boy, a lad, a 
young man; and, in all these stages of early life, He left 
us an example of humble, cheerful, respectful obedience to 
His parents. Children, that would imitate the Saviour, 
must ever remember this, and "follow His steps." 

2. He was " subject, not for wrath but for conscience- 
sake, to all that were in authority," whether in the Church 
of which He was a member, or in the Government, of 
which He was a subject. His individual opinion, though 
infallibly correct, did not prompt Him to agitation and 
insubordination. He faithfully exposed the errors, in doc- 
trine and practice, which had found their way into the 



336 THE LIFE OP CHEIST. 

Church in which He had been dedicated to God, by cir- 
cumcision; but, we nowhere find Him refractory to the 
authority of that Church, nor laboring to form a party for 
its subversion. Nay, we find Him performing a miracle, 
that Peter might pay the temple-tribute, for himself and 
for his Master; notwithstanding He had made His own 
exemption to pay that tribute evident, in the answer which 
He elicited from Peter. Being the Son of God, to whom 
the temple was dedicated, He could not be required to pay 
a tribute which was designed to defray the expenses of 
the services performed in it. While He warns His disci- 
ples against the corrupt practices of religious teachers, 
He exhorts them to pay respect to their teaching. " The 
Scribes and Pharisees," says He, "sit in Moses's seat: all, 
therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe 
and do, but do not ye after their works; for they say and 
do not." How different is this from the too common 
practice among those professing to be the followers of 
Jesus Christ, who, on account of even slight eccentricities 
and imprudences, much more where there is a religious or 
moral delinquency, not only repudiate the faults of a 
minister of Religion, but his ministry and his teaching 
also, and claim to themselves peculiar piety and morality 
for so doing ! As if the value of the Gospel were lessened 
by the defects of its propagators, or the fastidiousness of 
the disciple were indicative of more purity and integrity 
than the more liberal course of his Divine Master! We 
see the Saviour attending on and participating in the 
religious services of the synagogue and the temple, and 
joining in the celebration of the religious festivals, 
enjoined by the Levitical law; though He knew that the 
hour was close at hand when these shadowy rites and 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 337 

imperfect services) now "waxed old/' would "vanish away," 
and give place to the real, the spiritual, the life-giving 
and permanent institutions, of which He, Himself, would 
be the founder. Hence> though the law would be changed, 
when He should be exhibited in His character of High 
Priest^ He came "not to destroy the law and the prophets, 
but to fulfill*' them; and, in fulfilling them, to supersede 
them. 

He was equally subject to the civil authority, under 
which He lived. That authority was a most rigorous des- 
potism ; and, as was exemplified in His own case, as well 
as in that of many others, often extremely unjust and 
oppressive ; still, He exhibited, in His own life, as well as. 
enjoined on His disciples, strict and unresisting obedience 
and submission to that authority. From Him* the laws 
of Caesar, however unjust or oppressive, had nothing like, 
nullification to apprehend, notwithstanding B[e could hav;e. 
made good His opposition to them, by the might of 
" twelve legions of angels," or by the exertion of His own 
omnipotent energy. No appeal to. a '*■ Higher Law," was 
pleaded by Him, as a reason for setting Himself in oppo- 
sition to the law of the government, within whose 
jurisdiction He had placed Himself. The current of 
popular opinion, among the Jews, set strongly against the 
authority of Caesar;; and nothing would more effectually 
have conciliated the favor of His countrymen to Him, 
than for Jesus. Christ to have arrayed Himself against that 
authority.. But, when he was insidiously asked whether 
tribute should be paid to Caesar, He referred them to 
their recognition of the supreme authority of the emperor, 
in receiving his coin as current money — implying that 
such recognition bound them to the service in question.. 



338 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

We are not now considering the right of a community or 
nation to change its form of government, or its supreme 
ruler, but the duties of individuals and minorities, under 
an established government. If these may properly resist 
or nullify the authority of laws, when they shall judge 
them to be improper, no matter on what grounds, there 
can be no government among men. What a minority, no 
matter how large, may properly do, each individual has 
equal right, if not equal power, to do also. Our great 
Exemplar, at all events, in circumstances which appealed 
as strongly as any ever did, both to personal rights and 
patriotic sympathies, has set us the example of unresisting 
submission, when the means of effectual resistance were 
in His hands. Government is indispensable to the well- 
being of man in society ; and, as the submission or the 
subjection of individuals and minorities is necessary to 
the existence of government, voluntary submission is a 
moral duty of very great importance, and this example of 
Jesus Christ is of great value, as well as of binding 
obligation. 

3. We shall next contemplate Jesus Christ, in His 
behavior under temptation : for, " He was, in all points, 
tempted like as we are." What temptations assailed 
Him, in the rest of His pilgrimage, we know not ; but, 
there was a season of temptation, of which we have special 
and full information. He had, when this season of tempta- 
tion commenced, been fasting "forty days and forty 
nights;" and, of course, was "hungry" and faint. The 
first temptation, addressed to Him, was suggested by and 
adapted to His enfeebled condition and craving appetite. 
It was thus presented, " If thou be the Son of God, com- 
mand that these stones be made bread." The gist of the 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 339 

temptation, we apprehend, was in the doubt implied as to 
His being the Son of God. Jesus Christ had recently 
been declared, by a voice from heaven, accompanied by 
the descent of the Holy Ghost, from the opening heavens, 
upon Him, to be the Son of God. To doubt a fact, so 
announced and so attested, would have been sinful. And, 
had Jesus Christ commanded the stones about him to be 
made bread, in attestation of His Sonship, He would, prac- 
tically at least, have adopted the doubt. Besides, by 
acting upon the suggestion of Satan, He would not merely 
have called into action miraculous power for selfish pur- 
poses, but would have shown an impatience of inconvenience 
wholly unworthy the character of Him who came into the 
world to qualify Himself to be the " Captain of our salva- 
tion," by being made " perfect, through suffering." May 
we not reasonably suppose that Satan calculated upon 
exciting a doubt, in the mind of Jesus Christ, of His 
being the Son of God, and upon engaging Him in reason- 
ings upon the subject? How plausible the inference 
would have been, that the Son of God could not be sub- 
ject to such painful sensations of hunger, to such faintness 
and lassitude ! How natural the conclusion, that, having 
power to do so, He should produce at once a supply for 
His hunger ! Had Jesus Christ, as His disciples too often 
do, entered into argument with Satan, instead of promptly 
and decisively repelling his assaults, how cogently might 
the tempter have enforced his insidious recommendation, 
and at how much disadvantage would the tempted have 
engaged in the conflict ! 

The second temptation, in addition to the insinuated 
doubt of the Sonship of Jesus Christ, proposes a useless 
and wanton exposure of Himself to danger, on the part 



340 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

of Jesus Christ, that He might thereby ascertain whether 
He were or were not entitled to the distinction of that 
illustrious relationship. The Divine resources, though 
infinite and inexhaustible, are, so far as we have any 
means of judging, never squandered in idle and profitless 
expenditure. Everywhere, throughout the works of God, 
such a correspondence of necessities and capabilities 
appears, as establishes it as a rule in the Divine economy 
to do nothing needlessly or in vain. When, by the mis- 
management of the creature, extraordinary displays of the 
Divine power have been rendered necessary, in order to 
the enjoyment of existence by such creature, that rule 
may be, and in the case of man has been, superseded by 
the abounding kindness of the Creator ; but, in ordinary 
cases, he who exposes himself to needless danger, with the 
persuasion that he shall be preserved from it by Divine 
interposition, rather insults God by his presumption, than 
renders himself acceptable by trust in His kindness. 
Hence, for Jesus Christ to have yielded to the temptation 
in question, would have been to question the testimony, 
so lately communicated from heaven, that He was the Son 
of God, and to have insulted the dignity and the wisdom 
of His Heavenly Father, by a claim for miraculous inter- 
position in a ease rendered necessary by wantonness and 
presumption. To render this temptation the more effective, 
Satan quotes from the Sacred Scriptures a promise which 
seemed applicable in the case, and which ought, where 
it is applicable, to inspire the most comfortable assurance. 
Standing on a pinnacle of the temple, to which he had 
conveyed Jesus Christ, Satan said to Him, " If thou be 
the Son of God, cast thyself down ; for it is written, He 
shall give His angels charge concerning thee; and in 



THE LIFE OP CHRIST. 341 

their hands they shall bear thee up, lest, at any time, thou 
dash thy foot against a stone." Could the tempter have 
hurled Jesus Christ, from the dizzy elevation where He 
stood, the promise would have been applicable, and there 
would have been no presumption in His expecting its 
fulfillment; but to have created the necessity, by casting 
Himself down needlessly, or to test the truth of the 
announcement from heaven, that He was the Son of God, 
would have been offensive presumption, or insulting want 
of faith in the Divine veracity. 

The third temptation was to gratification of boundless 
ambition, on condition that Jesus Christ should worship 
or pay homage to Satan. Love of power, for its own 
sake, is native to the human heart. The sentiment is 
greatly strengthened by the contingent advantages which 
result from the possession of such power ; and, to a heart 
burning with philanthropy, what could promise higher 
gratification than the possession of universal dominion? 
What stupendous schemes of benevolence would universal 
dominion enable the philanthropist to realize ! How 
might he mitigate suffering, dissipate ignorance, remove 
the heavy hand of oppression and pour a full tide of pros- 
perity upon every class of humanity ! Jarring interests 
might be harmonized, by judicious systems of reciprocal 
compensation* — rival nations, seeking their respective 
aggrandizements at each others expense, might be recon- 
ciled, by the authority, if not by the influence of a common 
Sovereign. The wars, that deluge the earth with blood, 
wrap cities in flames and multiply widows and orphans in 
the world, might be made to cease, were the sovereignty 
of the world vested in a single individual. Possession of 
vast power, then, boundless indulgence and universal scope 



342 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

for the exercise of the noblest faculties and worthiest 
affections of a human being, were offered in this tempta- 
tion. True : the condition, on which these various 
advantages were offered, was wicked; and, supposing 
Satan to have appeared to Jesus Christ in his own proper 
character, it was exceedingly revolting. But is it not 
probable that the seeming of the tempter was that of an 
angel of light? We think it is; since, in the second 
temptation, he urges his proposal by an appeal to a Scrip- 
ture-promise. We deem it not unlikely that he attempted 
to pass himself off on Jesus Christ as an angel of superior, 
perhaps of the highest, rank. He claims to be the dele- 
gated chief of all the kingdoms of the world ; and this, 
certainly, favors the supposition, that he claimed high 
angelic rank, if, as we have supposed he did, he appeared 
in the guise of an angel of light. 

The line of defense, against these temptations, adopted 
by Jesus Christ, was the same in them all — the same, in 
its general principle, though varied, to suit the particular 
character of the temptations to be resisted. He does not 
defend Himself against these temptations, by insisting on 
their want of natural fitness, nor by marshaling against 
them the prudential considerations which dissuaded from 
compliance with them; but, He placed Himself immedi- 
ately and avowedly under the aegis of Divine protection, 
and under the direction of the Word of Divine Revelation, 
as His refuge in time of danger. And, this, in conflicts 
with an enemy so subtle and of so vast and various 
resources as Satan, is the only safe course. If we attempt 
to trv conclusions with him in debate, a thousand to one 
that we shall be stultified and bewildered; as, in the 
whole art of sophistry, he is an adept of unrivaled skill. 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 343 

He will have little difficulty in so mystifying the human 
intellect as to make appear, to it, u the worse the better 
reason." The only weapons he fears, in the hands of 
man, are the "shield of faith," and the "sword of the 
Spirit, which is the Word of God." The former, he 
knows, will intercept the keenest of his "fiery darts," 
though hurled with the utmost energy of the arm of " an 
arch angel ruined ;" and from the grinding edge of the 
latter, he has learned to shrink, even when it is wielded 
by the feeblest arm. The reason of this is, that faith 
interposes the invincible Divinity between the tempted 
and the assailant, and that the omnipotence of the Great 
Supreme is in the stroke of the celestial falchion before 
which he cowers, appalled and affrighted. " God is our 
refuge and strength — a very present help in time of 
trouble," embodies the rationale of the course adopted by 
Jesus Christ, in repelling the temptations of Satan ,* and 
His followers should ever conform themselves to His 
example. 

In the first of these temptations, Satan, with well-dis- 
sembled kindness and sympathy in the discomfort of the 
hungry and enfeebled Immanuel, advises Him, if He has 
the wonderful ability to do so, which He must have if He 
is the Son of God, to command the stones which were at 
hand to "be made bread," that He might quiet the 
cravings of His importunate appetite, and resuscitate His 
enfeebled energies. He repels the temptation, by quoting, 
from the Scriptures, a passage which expresses trust in 
God in the absence of visible means of sustenance — " It 
is written," says He, that "man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God." With such reliance upon the providence 



344 THE LIFE OF CHEIST. 

of God, and with such entire self-abandonment to the 
direction of that providence, Satan at once perceived that 
Jesus Christ could not be successfully assailed through 
the medium of personal wants or discomforts; and he, 
accordingly, changed the point of attack: taking Jesus 
Christ into the City, and placing Him on a pinnacle of 
the temple, he said to Him, " If thou be the Son of God 
cast thyself down ; for it is written, He shall give His 
angels charge concerning thee ; and, in their hands they 
shall bear thee up, lest, at any time, thou dash thy foot 
against a stone," as if he had said to Jesus Christ, ' If 
thou reposest such implicit and self-abandoning confidence 
in Divine Providence as thou hast intimated, here is a 
fair opportunity for thee to evince it, and I cite thee to 
an apposite promise to sustain thy trust — cast thyself 
down — angels' hands will be interposed to break the 
violence of thy fall — not even a contusion of thy foot 
need be apprehended.' Jesus Christ calmly replies, " It 
is written again, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
God.'" — As if He had said, 'I, indeed, may assuredly trust 
in Divine Providence for needed help; but, I may not affront 
Him, by trying His kindness and faithfulness needlessly 
— this were contrary to what is written — it were to tempt 
the Lord my God.' Foiled in these two attempts, against 
Jesus Christ, and rinding that He could not be induced 
so far to bring into question His being the Son of God as 
to appeal, in support of His claim to that relation, to 
miraculous power, Satan finally assails Him with a 
temptation, which usually finds ready enough way to the 
hearts of those capable of vast conceptions and endowed 
with magnanimity, such as he, doubtless, now considered 
Jesus Christ to be. Having taken Him up into an 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 345 

exceedingly high mountain, and shown Him all the king- 
doms of the world and the glory of them, he said unto 
Him, " All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall 
down and worship me." Universal dominion, with all its 
vast concomitant advantages, are offered to Jesus Christ, 
in this temptation, on the single condition that He would 
fall down and worship the tempter, who, as we have here- 
tofore supposed, very probably presented himself as an 
angel of light, of high rank and of such consideration with 
the Supreme Majesty, as to have received from Him a 
delegated authority over the whole world. But, the 
temptation was indignantly though calmly repelled — 
Jesus Christ saying to the tempter, "Get thee hence, 
Satan ; for, it is written, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' " Thus resisted 
by Jesus Christ, Satan fled from Him ; and celestial mes- 
sengers came and ministered to Him — doubtless, supplying 
Him with the food, for which He would not exert His 
miracle-working power, when demanded as a proof of His 
being the Son of God. Thus, too, if the followers of Jesus 
Christ will, steadfastly in the faith and with unviolated 
fealty to God and His word, "resist the Devil, he will flee 
from them ;" and, they shall receive the reward of victory, 
in Divine communications and heavenly ministrations 
according to their need, be that need what or however 
great it may. 

We shall now call attention to the social character of the 
life of Jesus Christ; and, we remark, in general, that His 
social life was characterized by the most perfect morality 
that ever adorned a human being, since man was perverted 
by the original transgression. This we shall particularize 
in a few instances. 



346 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

(1.) The communications of Jesus Christ, with His cotem- 
poraries, were marked by a truth as decidedly opposed to 
guile and dissimulation as to downright falsehood. No 
consideration of personal advantage, no apprehension of 
danger, no mistaken views of courtesy or politeness could 
make Him swerve a hair's breadth from the straight line 
of truth. The leaders of the popular mind and affections 
were false in their teachings and vicious in their lives — 
He tore the veil from their errors, exposed their vices and 
denounced against them the woe they were bringing upon 
themselves. This, He knew, would excite their malice, 
and, through their influence, rouse against Himself the 
mobocratic violence of the multitude. Yet, He hesitated 
not for a single moment in the exhibition of truth. Doc- 
trines, striking at the foundation of errors, long cherished 
by a people, are always provocations to wrath and hatred 
in the bosoms of a great majority of mankind. Such 
doctrines were taught, clearly and urgently taught, by 
Jesus Christ; as were also doctrines which exposed the 
gross corruptions of the human heart, and the vices which 
degrade the dignity of man — doctrines that are equally 
unpopular and offensive as those which uproot long- 
cherished prejudices. Nor was His devotion to truth 
less clearly shown in the reprehension of such faults as 
appeared in His friends and in His disciples, or in the 
faithful notification, to His followers, of the varied and 
distressing inconveniences, sufferings and dangers which 
they should incur by being His disciples. 

(2.) In celebrating the truth of Jesus Christ, we have, 
unavoidably, presented another of His virtues, of a high 
order, to your consideration — we refer to His courage. 
Indeed, we cannot conceive of the former virtue apart 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 347 

from the latter. And this courage must be genuine, a 
matter of principle, cool, calculating and unflinching. It 
is not, like the courage which enables a man to throw 
himself into the deadly breach, or to rush upon the death- 
dealing battery, dependent on external influences. It 
derives no support from excitement, cannot, in the hurry 
and bustle of action, lose the consciousness of danger nor 
sustain itself by the hope of glorious distinction, for either 
death or victory in the conflict. The courage necessary 
to the utterance of truth in all cases is moral courage, 
which looks only to conscience and to God for motive and 
support. Such courage eminently distinguished Jesus 
Christ,, rendering Him calm, resolved and truthful on all 
occasions. 

(3.) In the courage of Jesus Christ, there was no reck- 
lessness, no heedless rushing upon danger. Where duty, 
where the interests of truth and righteousness did not 
demand exposure, He carefully avoided the dangers which 
menaced Him, by silence or by retirement. When Herod 
and the Jews, prompted by the Scribes and Pharisees, 
sought to kill Him — when the mob of Nazareth deter- 
mined to " cast Him down from the brow of the hill on 
which their city was built," He quietly withdrew Himself 
from their reach. When His subtle adversaries conspired 
"to entangle Him in His talk," by eliciting from Him 
something that they might employ in securing His con- 
demnation by the rulers, or to excite the hostility of the 
populace against Him, He was either silent or so guarded 
in His replies as to defeat their nefarious purpose. He 
sought not — nay, He shunned danger, whenever He 
could do so without compromising the interests of truth 
and righteousness: thus evincing that His courage was 



/ 



348 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

under the direction of knowledge or prudence — another 
virtue in which He excelled. In Him, we see none of 
that fanatical zeal, which derogated from the characters 
of some of the Christian martyrs, who sought the dangers, 
which they might have shunned without the sacrifice of 
the holy cause for which they suffered. And, what He 
did Himself, He instructed His disciples to do also — 
"When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to 
another" — teaching that, although He did not esteem 
" prudence the better part of valor," He did consider pru- 
dence perfectly compatible with the courage and zeal by 
which He required His followers to be animated in His 
service. Jesus Christ so regulated His courage, by the 
sober dictates of prudence, as that there was in it nothing 
of rashness; and so animated His prudence, by courage, 
as that there was no exhibition of meanness or weakness 
in His character. Calmly, firmly and quietly, He moved 
on, in a course of righteousness, neither courting nor need- 
lessly shunning the dangers that lay in His course. 

(4.) Patience was another virtue greatly needed in the 
life of Jesus Christ, and in which He eminently excelled. 
His position in life was poverty, so absolute that He had 
not where to lay His head. His disciples understood His 
teaching with great difficulty — His own family regarded 
Him as either an imposter or a lunatic — and the popular 
leaders in Judea were His inveterate and unscrupulous 
enemies. These various circumstances rendered Him 
emphatically "a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." Yet, under the pressure of all these discomforts, 
no murmur ever escapes His lips. Even the treachery 
of a bosom friend, or the infidelity and desertion of all 
those who formed His domestic and trusted circle, could 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 349 

not extort one repining expression from His all-enduring 
patience. Neither hunger, nor fatigue, nor unfaithfulness 
or treachery of friends, nor malice, railing or persecution 
of enemies, could overwhelm or render petulant His 
patient spirit. With calm, self-sustained dignity, He 
held on in " the even tenor of His way," unperturbed, 
undaunted and unsubdued. Even the agonies of a pain- 
ful, shameful, undeserved death could not unman the 
patient sufferer. Never was Jesus Christ more dignified 
in His demeanor, more calm, self-sustained and placable 
towards His enemies, than when He hung on the Cross, 
forsaken by His few friends and surrounded by His infu- 
riate, mocking and taunting enemies, who had hunted 
Him to the ignominous doom He was now enduring. 

(5.) Jesus Christ was not less distinguished for meekness 
than He was for the other virtues we have contemplated. 
He was as prompt to accord forgiveness for injuries, to 
the penitent offender, as He was slow to anger, under 
violent provocations. " He came unto His own, and His 
own received Him not;" yet did He not speedily with- 
draw from them the overtures of kindness which they had 
so ungratefully spurned. The inhabitants of Jerusalem 
had sought to kill Him, because He had evinced kindness 
for them, in announcing to them unpleasing truths, on 
which their highest interests depended; but, instead of 
promptly visiting upon them the judgments merited by 
their ingratitude and cruelty, He wept over them, in fore- 
sight of the terrible calamities they were bringing upon 
themselves by their folly and wickedness. His wail of 
sympathetic anguish must find an echo in every ingenuous 
heart, when He cries, " 0, Jerusalem ! Jerusalem! how oft 
would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen 



350 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

gathereth her brood under wings, and ye would not!" "0, 
that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, 
the things which belong to thy peace ! But now they are 
hid from thine eyes!" ^When He hung upon the Cross, 
every nerve thrilling with anguish, despised, reviled, railed 
upon and mocked by those who had unjustly procured His 
crucifixion, He appealed to His Heavenly Father, with 
strong cries; but, it was not for vengeance upon His cruel 
persecutors, His heartless revilers — it was for mercy upon 
His murderers, for pardon to His persecutors, that He 
prayed so fervently, " Father, forgive them, — they know 
not what they do!" 

(6.) Beneficence is another of the virtues, that stand out 
prominently in the life of Jesus Christ. This may, indeed, 
be regarded as the strain of His character, the genius of 
His life. His errand to earth was one of transcendent 
beneficence. He so loved man, in his sinfulness and ruin, 
that He came into the world to save him, by sacrificing 
Himself for him. Kindness, like this, was never, but in 
this instance, heard of or even imagined by man. a God 
commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us — scarcely for a righteous 
man will one die." But, it is not of this inimitable kind- 
ness of Jesus Christ that we would now speak especially, 
but of the kindness of His social conduct as a man among 
men. One of the Sacred Writers sums up the history of 
His kindness in one brief, but comprehensive and emphatic 
sentence: "He went about, doing good." Doing good, 
was His occupation; and, in pursuing this noble, godlike 
vocation, He went about, traveled extensively, seeking 
occasions to do good. To the demands of the curious and 
skeptical, that He would "show them a sign from heaven/' 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 351 

in attestation of His Divine mission, He never would 
consent; but, He did attest that mission, by works equally 
miraculous, equally demanding the intervention of the 
Deity as any sign from heaven could have been. To 
these, He confidently appeals, as verifying His claims to 
the Messiahship. But, they were, for the most part, 
something more than mere miracles — they were works 
of beneficence as well. The energy imparted by His 
touch and His command, enabled " the lame man to leap 
as a hart" — "opened the ear of the deaf" — gave "sight 
to him who was born blind," and who had groped on in 
hopeless darkness for thirty years — settled the agitated 
nerves of the paralytic — cleansed the leper from his 
loathsome and pestilential disease — cooled the raging of 
fever, and soothed the throbbing temples of the sufferer — 
restored, to the bereaved Jairus, his only child, which 
death had ruthlessly torn from his bosom, and to the 
amiable and pious sisters, at Bethany, their brother, whom, 
for four days, they had lamented, as separated from them 
till the morning of the resurrection. Among the most 
touching of these works, great alike as works of miracu- 
lous power, and as acts of especial kindness to man, was 
that of restoring life to the young man of Nain, as he 
was borne out to be buried. His mother was a widow, 
and he was her only son, her last prop, her only human 
protector, when death came and wrested him from her 
embrace. How desolate to her was the world, in which 
she was left unprotected! With what heart-rending 
regrets is the past regarded by her! How dark the 
gloom, in which her future is wrapped up! How soul- 
piercing the anguish of the present, to her stricken 
bosom ! There, stark and insensible lies her late pride, and 



352 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

joy, and support; and, the bier is come to bear him away 
to the darkness, the seclusion and the corruption of the 
grave ! The melancholy procession commences its reluc- 
tant, slow and solemn march towards u the house appointed 
for all the living" to lay the widow's son by the side of 
that widow's husband! Who, that has ever contemplated 
such a procession, if he have any sensibility, but has felt 
unutterable sympathy for the chief mourner? The benevo* 
lent heart of Jesus Christ eould not but be deeply touched 
by it. He met the sad procession^ as it slowly passed out 
of the gate of the City; and, doubtless, entered, with all 
His warmth of kindly sympathy, into the grief of the 
stricken mother. " He had compassion on her, and said 
unto her, Weep not." "He laid His hand upon the bier;" 
and, they who bare it paused in their melancholy course* 
The attention of all was thus attracted to the sympathetic 
Stranger. Well had He said to the widow "weep not" 
for thy son; for He was about to pour in a full tide of joy 
upon her heart. And, now, He says to the dead: "Young 
man ! I say unto thee arise." His word was with power. 
The "broken wheel, at the cistern," was repaired, and 
again set in motion, the vital current, which just now was 
obstructed and stagnant, resumed its life-sustaining circu- 
lation, the nervous fluid, aroused from its late torpor, 
imparted new vigor and activity to the muscles. The 
young man " that was dead, sat up, and began to speak," 
and Jesus "delivered him to his mother." W^hat a precious 
gift! The gold of Ophir, and the precious stones of Gpl- 
conda, would have been despised in comparison with it by 
the mother. None but a bereaved, widowed mother could 
fully estimate its value. 

Another instance of the extraordinary beneficence of 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 353 

Jesus Christ, deserves particular notice, as it was an 
instance of the performance of a miracle in behalf of 
others, in circumstances far less pressing than those in 
which He refused to perform one for His own relief. A 
multitude had forsaken their homes and followed Him for 
three days, that they might hear "the gracious words that 
proceeded out of His mouth;" and, so intent were they 
on this, their all-absorbing purpose, that they had neg- 
lected to provide themselves with the means of sustenance 
for the occasion. Jesus, knowing these facts, said to His 
disciples : " I have compassion on the multitude, because 
they have now been with me three days and have nothing 
to eat; and, if I send them away fasting, to their own 
houses, they will faint by the way; for divers of them 
came from far." Having ascertained that His disciples 
had, in their store, " seven loaves and a few small fishes," 
He directed that the multitude should be conveniently 
arranged for receiving the food, at the hands of the disci- 
ples. He, then, took the loaves — gave thanks — brake 
the bread — gave it to the disciples, for distribution among 
the multitude, — and divided the fishes among them also. 
The result was, that the multitude — four thousand in 
number — ate sufficiently, and left seven baskets full of 
fragments. A similar miracle had been previously wrought 
by Jesus Christ, for a like benevolent purpose; in which, 
five thousand men, besides women and children, had been 
fed on "five loaves and two fishes;" leaving, after the 
multitude were satisfied, a remainder of " twelve baskets 
full of fragments." 

But, apart from these extraordinary benefactions, which 
had a higher purpose than merely to benefit the individuals 
affected by them, that is, to verify His claims as the Son 

23 



354 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

of God, Jesus Christ exhibited, in the whole tenor of His 
daily life, a spirit of kindness, always ready to pour itself 
out in streams of beneficence. In His intercourse with 
His disciples, there is a felt influence of considerate 
kindness, of which the most unobservant reader, who 
understands the import of the narrative, cannot fail to be 
sensible. There is, it is true, little of the fondling 
endearment, which may or may not be indicative of real 
kindness. There are unaffected dignity and cheerful 
seriousness in all that intercourse. We know nothing 
which fills our heart with a more touching sense of deep, 
warm, reliable friendship than the conversation of Jesus 
Christ, with His disciples, recorded in the 14th, 15th and 
16th Chapters of John's Gospel; and, especially, the 
prayer which follows that conversation, to be found in the 
17th Chapter of that Gospel. His kindness to His 
mother, like that which He evinced towards His disciples, 
though unobtrusive and. without much display of fondness, 
was manifested in a manner so striking as to render it 
impossible to doubt tnat that kindness was heart-deep and 
stronger than death. While He hung upon the cross, 
agonized and faint, He saw, standing near Him, His 
mother and His favorite disciple. In these circumstances 
of extreme personal distress, He anticipates the future 
sorrow and desolation which His mother, now, doubtless a 
widow, would soon experience, and provides, as He can, 
against them. This He does, by introducing John to her, 
as her son, and her to John, as his mother. And, in con- 
formity to this benevolent and provident arrangement, 
the evangelist, who is John himself, informs us, that 
u from that day, that disciple took her to his own home." 
These, however, were special cases of kindness elicited by 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 355 

peculiarly endearing relationships ; and, therefore, might 
have had place in the conduct of one who was not remark- 
able for beneficence. But, we are not restrained to these 
and like instances for our estimate of the character of 
Jesus Christ in this respect. His occupation, as we have 
already observed, was doing good. He had not silver and 
gold, to distribute among the poor and destitute. He had 
no wealthy home, in which to exercise the rites of a liberal 
hospitality. He could not, without a miracle, feed the 
hungry and clothe the naked. He was, Himself, emphati- 
cally poor. But, He had wisdom and kindness of heart ; 
and, could, therefore, instruct the ignorant, encourage the 
desponding, lead the wanderer back to the right way and 
sympathize in the sorrows of suffering humanity. These 
things He did. The instruction of the ignorant in what 
most concerns man to know, was the great business of 
His life. His manner was inimitably effective. Every- 
thing around Him, from the twittering sparrow to the 
towering eagle, from the lump of leaven to the sun, 
shining in his meridian strength, from the beggar, on the 
dunghill, to the king on his throne, was, in His hands an 
apt illustration of some spiritual and moral truth, that lies 
not within the range of ordinary thinking. "Never," 
said officers who had been sent to take Him into custody 
as a malefactor, " Never man spake like this man." In 
this instruction to the ignorant, we often discover the 
evident intention of the benevolent Teacher to have been 
to encourage the desponding, by exhibiting those sources 
of strength and of consolation which His benign religion 
opens to the feeble, the faint-hearted and the oppressed. 
We cite but one instance — "Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 



356 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek 
and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls.'' Much, also, of His teaching is calculated to cor- 
rect the erring and to reclaim the wanderer. The parables 
of the lost silver, the estrayed sheep and the fugitive, 
prodigal son, are intended to be illustrations of His eager- 
ness to recover those who have forsaken Him, and the 
joy with which He greets their recovery. To accomplish 
their recovery, how solemn, how faithful the warnings, the 
admonitions and the threatenings which He employs ! 
How earnest, how kindly and how soul-stirring His exhor- 
tations and entreaties ! And, finally, how tenderly and 
how wisely does He express His sympathy with those 
who mourn, and direct their sinking hearts to those con- 
solations which can override any calamity that can befall 
man on earth ! He assures them of a peace, which the 
world cannot give, and which it cannot take away — of 
the love of His Father and of communion with Him, if 
they abide in His words — of the comforting influence of 
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends to be ever with 
His people ; and, finally, of a place in the " House not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens," prepared for 
them by their ascended Saviour. 

5. There remains to be considered, in illustration of the 
text, one other characteristic of Jesus Christ — His piety. 
By this term we mean to express the performance of all 
the duties immediately due to His Heavenly Father. Some 
of these duties we shall exhibit. 

(1.) The first of these, that we shall mention, is that 
faith in Him, without which " it is impossible to please 
Him." This faith is explained by an apostle to be a 
" believing that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 357 

that diligently seek Him." A mere assent of the mind, 
to the truth of a proposition, does not answer to believing, 
in the Scripture-sense of the term. Such assent is often 
without a feeling of such interest in the proposition 
assented to as to produce any moral effect whatever; 
whereas, in the faith required in the Word of God, man 
must believe with the heart — with the moral powers. We 
must, in the exercise of this faith, have a strong convic- 
tion of the truth contained in the . proposition — it must 
be so embraced as to exert its proper moral influence, and 
it must be so relied on, or trusted in, as that we shall 
risk upon it any interest involved in its pledges. Thus 
must the existence of God be realized, and His relation, 
as a moral Sovereign, recognized, submitted to and relied 
upon, in order to our having that faith, which is indispen- 
sable to our pleasing God. That Jesus Christ entertained 
a lively and an operative conviction of the existence of God, 
His Heavenly Father, and of His relation of moral Sov- 
ereign, need not be proved or even illustrated by special 
reference — His whole life, as well as the whole of His 
teaching to others, attests it in the strongest manner pos- 
sible. Indeed, it was the fundamental article, not in His 
religious creed only, but equally in His moral code. From 
this primary truth, He derived every duty and every 
incentive to the performance of duty; and, any system 
of morals, that proceeds on a plan different from this, will 
be found to be greatly defective, either in its requirements, 
or in its motives, or in both requirements and motives. 

(2.) Reverence for God was strikingly manifested by 
Jesus Christ. As well in deed as in word, He ever 
evinced the most sincere and earnest desire to promote 
the honor of His Heavenly Father. Not only is self- 



358 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

abnegation, in the presence of this duty, distinctly and 
emphatically avowed by Him; but everywhere and on all 
occasions, He exemplified it, by retiring behind the 
splendor of His Father's glory, and concealing, as far as 
practicable, His own claims in the matter. It was the 
Father, who sent Him into the world to save sinners. It 
was the Father, whose glory was to be displayed in the 
resurrection of Lazarus. It was the Father, who should 
send, in the name of Jesus Christ, another Comforter, 
when the Saviour should leave the world. In short, with 
Jesus Christ, the adoring song of the angels, in Milton, — 
"Him first, Him last, Him middle, without end" — was a 
sacred motto. He declares of Himself: " I seek not mine 
own glory, but the glory of Him that sent me." And, 
what He so diligently sought to promote among others, 
we may fairly presume was a settled habit of thought and 
feeling with Himself. 

(3.) Love to God, is, at once, the highest and most 
sacred of all the operations of a moral being, no matter 
what his rank or capacity. This love is a just apprecia- 
tion of the Divine perfections — it is a susceptibility to 
be affected by those perfections — it is a desire for com- 
munion, fellowship and intercourse with Him — it is 
jealousy for His honor — it is a desire to be conformed 
to Him in all things, to be always pleasing in His sight, to 
witness and promote the success of all His plans and 
purposes. All this is directly implied in love to God. 
And, all this is seen in the whole tenor of the life of Jesus 
Christ. 

(4.) Trust in God, is another of the duties required of 
moral beings; and, in this, Jesus Christ was distinguished,. 
as in all the other duties of religion we have considered. 



THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 359 

He trusted in His Heavenly Father for counsel, in know- 
ledge and in duty — "I speak that which I have seen with 
my Father." " But now ye seek to kill me, a man that 
hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God." " I 
can, of mine own self, do nothing — as I hear, I judge, 
and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own 
will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." 
" My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me." " I do 
always those things which please Him." " I came, not to 
do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me." He 
trusted in Him for daily sustenance. As He taught His 
disciples to pray for "daily bread," and to have no anxious 
"care for what Ihey should eat or what they should drink:" 
so, when exceedingly hungry, after a forty days' fast, He 
declined performing a miracle, for the supply of His wants, 
casting Himself upon Divine Providence, in firm reliance 
on what is written in the word of God — "By every word 
which proceedeth out of the mouth of God, doth man 
live." He trusted in His Heavenly Father in times of 
difficulty and danger. " I know that thou always hearest 
me," is the language of firm confidence; and this con- 
fidence He displayed, when repressing the ardent 
intervention of Peter and His other disciples, for His 
rescue from the hands of sinful men, into which He had 
been betrayed, He assured them that, were He to " pray 
to His Father for twelve legions of angels," they would 
be presently sent for His deliverance and protection. He 
trusted in His Heavenly Father for the glory with which, 
for His mediatorial achievements, He shall be crowned in 
the presence of an admiring universe. Thus trusting, He 
prays to the Father, " Glorify Thou me, with Thine own 
self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world 



360 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

was ! " This is prayed, we humbly conceive, in His char- 
acter of God incarnate in humanity. By the incarnation 
the glory of His Divine nature was veiled from the eyes 
probably of all creatures; and the import of the prayer 
seems to us to be, " In this incarnate state, manifest, to 
the whole universe, the glory of my Divine nature ! " And, 
will not this prayer be granted, in its utmost import, when 
"seated at the right hand of God, He shall come, in His 
own glory and in the glory of His Father with all His 
holy angels," to "judge the world in righteousness?" He 
will, on that occasion, appear as the Son of man, at the 
same time that He comes in the ineffable glory of the 
Godhead. And this glory Jesus Christ expects and asks 
at the hands of His Heavenly Father. And, as He 
trusts in the Father, for His glory, as the triumphant 
Messiah : so, He trusts in Him for success in His media- 
torial enterprise. It was the love of the Father which 
sent Him to redeem man. It was the Spirit of the Father, 
which provided Him the humanity in which He expiated 
the sins of the world. It was the grace of the Father, 
which accepted the expiation; and it is this grace which 
pardons the penitent, believing sinner, and supplies the 
influence by which the impure are washed from their 
iniquities, and "made meet for the inheritance of the 
saints in light." 

(5.) Finally, Obedience is due to God, as the moral 
Sovereign, from every moral being in the universe. Obe- 
dience is essentially different from an action performed 
from a regard to the beauty and natural fitness of such 
action, or from a supreme regard to the advantages which 
will result from it. The actions may be the same in both 
xBases; but the difference of the motives prompting them, 



THE LIFE OP CHRIST. 361 

will impart an essential dissimilarity to their moral charac- 
ter. The same action may be vicious, amiable or virtuous, 
according to the motive prompting it. An alms, given 
to the poor, if given to bribe popular admiration, or to 
secure some other selfish end, is vicious — if given to 
gratify personal feelings of sympathy and kindness, it is 
amiable; and, when given in obedience to the will of God, 
it is a moral virtue. The last only will find acceptance 
with God; as it alone acknowledges a motive that can be 
effective in all circumstances, and with all varieties of 
disposition among men. Jesus Christ frequently and 
emphatically declares, in effect, that His only rule of 
action is the will of His Heavenly Father, Nor was it 
merely the rule of His action, it was, also, the limit to 
which He cheerfully restrained His indulgence. He was 
not only careful to do the will of God, as expressed in His 
revealed requirements, but resigned to the will of God, 
as manifested in His providential assignments to Him. 
The text fully expresses the former; and the latter is 
strikingly exhibited, in the prayer of His agony — 
"Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: 
nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done!" The two 
together, constitute that devotion to God, which all agree 
is His due, from those subject to His authority; and, 
which is the highest attainment in righteousness that can 
be reached by any created being. This, Jesus Christ, in 
His character of man, did reach; and, we, therefore, feel 
warranted in pronouncing the righteousness of His life 

PERFECT. 



DISCOURSE XL 

DEATH AND BURIAL OP CHRIST. 

For, I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received: how that 
Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and, that He was 
buried. — 1 Cor. xv, 3, 4. 

The death of Christ is among the most prominent sub- 
jects treated of in the Gospel ; and very great importance, 
to the destiny of man, is ascribed to it, so emphatically 
and with such frequency as to secure for it the most earn- 
est regard of every one who has any just claim to 
sober-mindedness and a rational concern for his own well- 
being. In Gospel-teaching, it is presented as the only 
ground on which man — a rebel against God — can expect 
the pardon of his offenses and a restoration to the Divine 
favor — his only hope of everlasting life. Such being the 
case, we cannot better employ ourselves, on the present 
occasion, than by contemplating that death, and endeavor- 
ing to trace out its connection with results so vastly 
important to man. We shall, in this Discourse, 

I. Consider the death of Christ and His burial as 
historical events ; 

II. Endeavor to establish the positions, that the death 
of Christ was vicarious, in behalf of man, and expiatory 
of the sins of man. And, 

362 



DEATH AND BUPwIAL OF CHRIST. 363 

I. We are to consider the death and burial of Christ, as 
historical events. In considering the death of Christ, as 
a historical event, we deem it proper to notice the ante- 
cedents of that death, as properly belonging to it, and 
necessary to be known, in order to a proper appreciation 
of the event itself. 

1. The first of these antecedents, which we shall notice, 
lies far back from the event, but is, nevertheless, intimately 
connected with it : — it is this. A Divine Person, for the 
express purpose of " delivering man from the fear of 
death," assumed the nature of man, that He might be 
able, "through death," to effect that deliverance. That 
is, He took upon Him human nature, that He might die 
— death being indispensable in order to man's deliverance 
from the fear of death, and, consequently, from sin, from 
which proceeds that fear. This assumption of human 
nature was voluntary, on the part of the Incarnated One, 
and was adopted expressly for the purpose of suffering 
death, in order to secure the great end contemplated in 
this incomparably benevolent design. It is, then, we 
think, sufficiently evident that the humanity of Christ was 
not, as some have supposed, naturally immortal. On the 
contrary, it was assumed, among other reasons for doing 
so, because it was mortal. It is true, our Saviour says, 
"No man taketh my life from me — I have power to lay 
it down, and I have power to take it again." But, this 
argues only that, so long as He chose to live, no power 
on earth could deprive Him of life ; and, that, when, 
having withdrawn that self-protection, He had yielded 
Himself up to the power of malicious men, and was "slain 
by their wicked hands," He had power to resume the life 
He had permitted them to take away. If we have taken 



364 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

a correct view of this matter, this antecedent is one of 
great importance, and well deserves to be considered in 
our view of the death of Christ as a historical event. 
Without it, we could not form a correct estimate of the 
character of that event. 

2. The death of Christ was procured by the malice of 
His cotemporaries — a malice which proceeded from no 
ill-desert on His part. What was said of Him by His 
judge — " I find no fault in Him" — might have been said, 
with equal truth, by all those who were in the conspiracy 
for His death. The Chief Priests, the Scribes, and the 
Elders, having no facts of a criminal character to allege 
against Him, and anxious to give a color of justice to 
their murderous proceedings, industriously sought hx false 
witnesses, to testify against Him ; but, so entirely blame- 
less was His life, that falsehood itself was at fault ; and, 
no congruous testimony, to His derogation, could be 
invented by it The chief causes of the malice indulged 
against Christ, by the Pharisees, Scribes and Priests of 
Judea, were the piety and probity of His life, and the 
purity and spirituality of His religious teaching. These 
were a manifest, and a severe reproof, upon their corrupt, 
impious and hypocritical lives, and their formal, defective 
and sensualizing instructions to the people, whom, blind- 
fold, they were blindly leading, through mazes of error, 
into the pit of destruction. And, it was this cutting 
reproof, ministered by His life and teaching, which aroused 
their malice against Him to the madness of rage, and 
determined them to compass His death. Providence, for 
obvious reasons, prevented their accomplishing this iniqui- 
tous purpose in the tumult of a mob, or by any means 
which should not come under the observation of the mul- 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 365 

tikrde. Could they have procured His death in either of 
these ways, the public mind might have been led into 
incurable error in regard to it ; but, though both these 
modes of putting Him out of the way were resolved 
upon and attempted, in neither were they successful, 
Providence ordering it so that what was done, in this 
important matter, should be open to universal observation 
and scrutiny. Had He perished in the turmoil of an 
infuriate mob — had He been stoned within the purlieus 
of the temple, or precipitated from the brow of the hill on 
which Nazareth was built ; or, had He been put to death, 
in any manner, " in the absence of the multitude," how 
ample would have been the opportunity of His unscrupu- 
lous enemies to have invented a posthumous indictment 
against Him, which would have held up His character to 
the execration and abhorrence of every lover of virtue. 
Or, had this been deemed either impracticable or impolitic, 
with what readiness could they have rendered the fact of 
His death questionable in the public mind ! Have we 
not seen such an artifice successful to a great extent, in 
covering, from public detestation, the murderers of the 
ill-starred Morgan ? But, as the death of Christ was pro- 
cured through a judicial decision, under the pursuit of an 
intelligent and influential prosecution, we may be sure 
that the most unfavorable representation of His character, 
that could be sustained by any show of evidence, was 
exhibited against Him on His trial. And, no unpreju- 
diced mind can avoid, through a careful examination of 
the report of that trial, arriving at precisely the same 
conclusion that was reached by His judge — "I find no 
fault in Him." The predicted and afterwards averred fact 
of His resurrection from the dead, rendered it vastly 



MQ DEATH AND BUEIAL OF CHRIST. 

important that the death of Christ should have been both 
a notoriety and an ascertained fact — one about which 
there could be no dispute — no doubt. Hence, not only 
the importance of its being not only a public event, but 
an event in which the public should feel a lively interest. 
But as we shall have occasion, hereafter, to dwell, at some 
length, upon this matter, we shall pursue it no farther at 
this time. 

3. We notice, as an antecedent of the death of Christy 
deserving to be here considered, the fact that He was 
betrayed into the hands of the conspirators, by one of 
His own disciples, one on whom He had conferred especial 
honor, in whom He had reposed particular trust and whom 
He had admitted to the intimacy of familiar and daily 
intercourse. This act of treachery rendered it the interest 
of the betrayer of Christ to expose the character of his 
betrayed Master to public odium; and his habits of 
intimacy and unrestrained intercourse with that Master 
for years, would have enabled him to do so, had there 
been in that character aught that would subject Him to 
such odium on being made public. But, so far from 
attempting this, Judas, so soon as he perceived that the 
innocence of his Master did not protect Him from the 
malice of His enemies, but that sentence of death was 
passed against Him, took the money, for which he had 
sold himself to eternal infamy, to his equally infamous 
employers ; proclaimed the innocence of his betrayed 
Master, and, desperate alike of respectability among men 
and of mercy from God, rushed upon self-destruction. 
The testimony of any number of faithful friends, could 
not, we apprehend, so strongly have established the inno- 
cence of Christ, as did this confession, extorted by remorse 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 367 

from this self-convicted traitor — "I have betrayed inno- 
cent blood" — made to his prompters and coadjutors in 
crime. And, in the infatuation of sin, or under the 
constraining influence of a righteous and retributive 
Providence, these murderous conspirators affix, to their 
own infamy, the seal of perpetuity, to be "known and 
read of all men," by buying, with the money with which 
they had bribed the cupidity of Judas, to betray to them 
the innocent blood of his Master, the Potter's field, as a 
place in which to bury strangers — a spot ever afterwards 
designated as the " field of blood." So true is it, that 
God will " make the tongue of the wicked to fall upon 
themselves !" 

4. For His betrayal into the hands of sinful men, and 
for the tragic catastrophe which was to follow, Christ had 
diligently and tenderly labored to prepare His disciples. 
With them He had holden a valedictory conversation ; 
which, for dignified resignation to approaching calamity, 
for tender solicitude for the welfare of those whom He 
was about to leave, and for consoling counsel, is unequaled 
in the history of social intercourse. He had instituted a 
most significant commemorative ordinance, the observance 
of which was to call back to their recollection all that He 
had been to them, during their interesting association with 
Him, and which was to be perpetuated, till His reunion 
with them should supersede its importance ; and that 
reunion, He promised them, should take place in circum- 
stances of ineffable and abiding felicity. When He 
announced to them His approaching death, He left them 
a legacy, of incomparably more value than any amount 
of wealth, any profusion of means for mere animal indul- 
gence, any extent of power— "Peace I leave with you, 



368 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

my peace I give unto you" — " I will send you another 
Comforter, who shall abide with you forever, even the 
Spirit of truth that proceedeth from the Father — He 
shall guide you into all truth." This peace, and this 
Comforter and the consolation He brings, are not subject 
to the vicissitudes and hazards to which all earthly advan- 
tages are liable. Nothing can impair them, or rob a 
disciple of them, but his own infidelity to his interest in 
them. He may cast them from him, but cannot be robbed 
of them. Well might Christ, then, in His tender leave- 
taking admonish His disciples, " Let not your heart be 
troubled." It was, doubtless, at least, in part, with a view 
to the preparation of His disciples for His death, that He 
led them out, in the silence and darkness of the night, to 
the hushed and solemn valley of Kedron, that they might 
join with Him in appropriate religious exercises, and 
might witness the mighty agony of soul with which He 
was to wrestle. He announced to them, as a motive to 
alertness of spirit on this trying occasion, that His "soul 
was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death ;" and bade 
them to " watch and pray," that they might not enter 
into temptation. Then, withdrawing Himself from them, 
" about a stone's cast, He fell upon His face," and, " with 
strong crying and tears," prayed earnestly, " Father, if it 
be possible, let this cup pass from me — nevertheless, not 
mine but Thy will be done !" Thus did Christ pray to 
His Heavenly Father three times ; and, so great was the 
agony of His soul, and the arduous struggle through which 
He passed, that " His sweat was, as it were, great drops 
of blood falling to the ground." Three times, in intervals 
of His prayer, He returned to His disciples, whom He had 
exhorted to watchfulness and devotion, as a safeguard 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 369 

against temptation, and, alas for the weakness of human 
nature! as often found them asleep — "asleep for sorrow," 
we are told by one of the Evangelists. Their overtasked 
energies gave way, under the pressure of their mighty 
sorrows. Christ did not reproach them for their noncom- 
pliance with His exhortation to watchfulness and prayer, 
but, considerately and benevolently, apologized for their 
delinquency, by saying: "the spirit, indeed, is willing, but 
the flesh is weak." Immediately after His last return from 
prayer, Judas arrived and betrayed Him to His enemies. 
5. Another antecedent of the death of Christ is a 
current prophecy, running through the whole of fallen 
humanity — foreshowing, and, in some instances, with sur- 
prising accuracy of description and minuteness of detail, 
the nature, circumstances and time of His sufferings and 
death. The nature of His death is clearly indicated, by 
a prediction of His own, when He speaks of His being 
"lifted up," and was frequently foretold by Him in explicit 
terms. Other prophets dwelt more upon the circumstances 
in which He should die — the publicity of the event, the 
malice and mockery with which He should be pursued, 
even in the death-agony, by His inexorable persecutors, 
and the patience and meekness with which He should bear 
the complicated anguish, with which both His body and 
spirit should be overwhelmed. The time of His death was 
definitely predicted by Daniel, more than five centuries 
before it occurred. We have merely glanced at this 
subject, it not being the object of this Discourse to argue 
the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, but merely to present an 
historical view of His death, with its antecedents, which 
have an important bearing upon its distinctive character^ 
and its most important object. 

24 



370 DEATH AM) BDRIAL OF CHRIST. 

6. The last of the antecedents of the death of Christ, 
which we shall notice, is the series of public proceedings 
which determined both the fact and the manner of His 
death. His arrest was by the Jewish authorities, partly 
civil, but chiefly ecclesiastical. His first judicial arraign- 
ment was before the High Priest and his assistants in 
ecclesiastical adjudication. His arraignment was, it seems 
to us, without any specific charge — on a mere general 
presumption of delinquency, to be sustained by any testi- 
mony that could be obtained against Him. The procuring 
of such testimony was earnestly attempted, but, with very 
little success. An abortive effort was made to find cause 
of criminal charge against Him in the testimony of some, 
who averred that they had heard Him say: "I will destroy 
this temple, that is made with hands, and, within three days, 
I will build another, made without hands." Bat when He 
declined pleading to this frivolous averment, the Court 
seems to have abandoned it, as insufficient for their pur- 
pose — perhaps, too, they were sensible that any farther 
proceedings on a charge so futile, would bring upon them 
the contempt of the public. Be this as it may, they seem 
not to have had any reliance upon it, to justify them 
before the world for His death, which they had absolutely 
premeditated. Unable to procure available testimony 
against Him, they resorted to inquisitorial proceedings; 
that they might, through His truth and the bigotry of the 
people, secure their nefarious object — a mode of judicial 
proceedings always and exclusively calculated to serve the 
purposes of tyranny and oppression, and quite as likely to 
defeat as to promote the ends of justice. How any men, 
calling themselves Christians, should have ever had the 
effrontery to adopt, as a part of their judicial economy, a 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHUIST. 371 

mode of trial so iniquitously employed for the unrighteous 
■condemnation of the Author of Christianity, is a matter 
of great wonder. Yet, so it has been; and thousands of 
the innocent have, through its instrumentality, met a fate 
similar to that which it achieved for Him. The high 
priest solemnly adjuring Christ, in the name of God, to 
say whether He were or were not the Son of God, He 
replied in the affirmative. And, on this admission, they 
convicted Him of blasphemy — a crime punishable with 
death, by the law of Moses. If this admission of Christ 
expressed the truth, it was in no sense a crime — if it 
expressed a falsehood, it was certainly a grievous sin; but, 
it was not blasphemy, which consists in traducing the 
•character of God, or in treating irreverently His holy 
name. The high priest and his coadjutors had no diffi- 
culty in the matter. They conformed their interpretation 
of blasphemy to the purpose they contemplated, and 
^assumed that the admission of Christ, that He was the 
Son of God, expressed a falsehood; and, so, they found 
Him guilty of blasphemy, and pronounced Him to be 
worthy of death. 

The authority to punish with death had been taken 
from the Jewish Courts, when Judea became a Roman 
province. Hence, though this high Court had found Christ 
guilty, and had pronounced Him to be worthy of death, 
they had not power to pass sentence of death upon Him. 
They, therefore, delivered Him over (to use a phrase, 
current in the Romish community, expressive of a pro- 
ceeding answering accurately to this) to the secular arm. 
" They led Him away to Pilate," the Roman governor or 
procurator, to obtain, at his competent tribunal, a confir- 
mation of their finding against Him, and the sentenca 



372 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

of death, which they were not permitted to utter. They 
were unwilling, however, that the Roman judge should 
revise their proceedings. He, naturally enough, inquired, 
"What accusation bring ye against this man?" They 
reply : " If he were not a malefactor, we would not bring 
him to thee." Pilate was evidently oifended at their 
insolence, in supposing that he, instead of being judge, 
was to be the mere organ of their judicial decision; and 
bids them " take him and judge him according to their 
own law." They reply: "It is not lawful for us to put 
any man to death." Pilate, after thus extorting, from 
the highest officers of the Jews, this humiliating confes- 
sion of their degraded condition as a people, took his place 
in the seat of judgment, and questioned Jesus Christ, as 
to the truth of a charge which, he some how knew, was 
alleged against Him, and which, as it was currently under- 
stood, represented Him as hostile to the Roman Emperor. 
He said to Christ: "Art thou the king of the Jews?" 
This interrogatory led to considerable colloquy between 
the judge and his Prisoner; the result of which was 
Pilate's entire persuasion of the perfect innocence of 
Christ. Wherefore he said to the prosecutors of Christ: 
" I find in him no fault at all. Ye have a custom that I 
should release unto you one at the Passover — will ye, 
therefore, that I release unto you the king of the Jews?" 
The disinclination of Pilate to condemn Chrst compelled 
those who sought His condemnation to plead against Him 
in Pilate's Court; and, besides the charge of blasphemy, 
upon which they had found Him guilty, they charged 
Him with insubordination to, if not with treason against 
the Emperor, and with exciting sedition " from Galilee to 
Jerusalem." Both these charges were utterly false and 



DEATH AND BXJRIAL OF CHRIST. 373 

unsupported by any show of testimony. Nay, one of these 
charges was directly in the teeth of the fact referred to. 
They -charge Him with "forbidding to pay tribute to 
Caesar;" whereas, He clearly inculcated, on those who 
consulted Him upon the subject, the obligation of paying 
such tribute. 

"When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether 
Christ were a Galilean? And, as soon as he knew that 
He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to 
Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time." 
Thus was the adjudication of His case submitted to a third 
tribunal ; and the result was, as was afterwards affirmed by 
Pilate, that Herod found "no fault in Him, touching those 
things" of which He was accused by His Jewish prosecu- 
tors. Pilate, satisfied, himself, of the innocence of Christ, 
and, sustained, in this view of the case, by the like opinion 
of Herod, announced his determination to discharge the 
Prisoner. But, the enemies of Chiist were not to be thus 
baffled. Though they could not stultify the mind of the 
judge, they might excite his fears, and alarm his ambition. 
They, therefore, say to him : " If thou let this man go, 
thou art not Caesar's friend — every one that maketh 
himself king, speaketh against Caesar." This was decisive 
of the fate of Christ. For, on this appeal to his ambition 
and his fears, Pilate resumed the judgment-seat, which 
he had left while announcing his purpose to discharge 
Christ; but, it was not that he might institute a more care- 
ful and thorough examination of the case, but that he 
might strengthen his own position in relation to Caesar, 
by making it appear that his own proceedings were 
determined by a sacred regard to the authority of the 
Emperor, and by -extorting, from the refractory Jews, 



374 DEATII AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

♦ 

an acknowledgment of Csesar's sovereignty over them. 
Hence, he addressed to the elders and high officers of the 
Jews, this cutting taunt, intended, doubtless, to elicit 
the acknowledgment in question: "Behold your king!" 
Their reply was a vociferous repudiation of His claim to 
royalty, and a demand for His execution. They cried: 
"A way with him! away with him! crucify him 1 Pilate said 
unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests 
answered, We have no king but Csesar." This was enough. 
Both parties had gained their respective ends. Pilate had 
shown his deference to Ca&sar, and had extorted from tho 
Jews, noted for their sedition, an ample acknowledgment 
of Csesar's sovereignty; and the persecutors of Christ had 
triumphed over Pilate's sense of justice, and obtained a 
sentence, consigning the innocent Jesus to the Cross. 
For, immediately, upon this acknowledgment by the chief 
priests, " Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they 
desired;" and "delivered him, therefore, unto them to bo 
crucified." Could anything be more manifest than the 
malice of the prosecution, the futility of the charges 
against Christ, His absolute innocence, and the corruption 
of the judge, who, after strongly declaring the innocence 
of the accused, sentenced and delivered Him up to be 
crucified, on exclusively selfish considerations, either from 
base-hearted pusillanimity or from grasping ambition, or 
from a union of both these unworthy motives? It may be 
well to remark, that, notwithstanding the well-established 
innocence of Christ, in regard to the offenses judicially 
charged against Him, as well as the unexampled excel- 
lence of His character in general, there, perhaps, never was 
the co-operation of so many rival and incongruous parties 
and descriptions of men in the condemnation to death of 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 375 

any human being. The Jew, glorying in the peculiarity, 
or, as he fondly imagined, the exclusiveness of his religious 
privileges — the haughty Roman, proud of the majesty 
and vast extent of the Empire of which he was a member — 
the self-applauding and superstitious Pharisee, who said to 
all around him: "Stand by thyself, come not near to mej 
for I am holier than thou"— the sensual and rationalistic 
Sadducee, who allowed the existence of only such beings 
as could be apprehended by his faculties, and who had no 
hope of a future existence — the learned Doctor, who 
despised those who had "never been taught" the mysteries 
of letters and the law — the unreasoning and illiterate 
crowd, whose rule of action is blind impulse or immemo- 
rial custom — Judas, the disciple and apostle of Christ, 
and Barabbas, the blood-stained robber, Herod and Pilate, 
mutual in their enmity towards each other — all were con- 
cerned, with more or less directness, in bringing about the 
condemnation of Christ — as if all sorts of men were aware 
that they had an interest in His death, and imagined that, 
in order to profit by if, they must be parties to it! The 
Jews prosecuted Him : Herod relinquished his right of 
jurisdiction over Him, after ascertaining His innocence; 
and Pilate, though thoroughly satisfied of His innocence, 
condemned Him to the most ignominious death, that he 
might avoid the imputation of infidelity to the Emperor. 
He was delivered into the hands of executioners, familiar 
with human sufferings, and, therefore, capable of adding, 
to the bitterness of a terrible death, the mockery and 
insult that are harder to be borne, by a noble spirit, than the 
physical pains of even a death by crucifixion. Arrayed 
in garments indicative of royalty, crowned with thorns, 
bearing a sceptral reed in His hand, Christ was subjected 



376 DEATH AND BURIAL OP CHRIST. 

to the mockeries and reviling of the soldiers who had His 
crucifixion in charge, and of the thronging multitude, led 
on by their rulers and priests. They bowed the knee 
before Him, in mock homage, crying to Him, in taunting 
irony: "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spit in His 
face, and smote Him on the head with a reed. Wearied, 
at length, with their outrages upon Him, they loaded Him 
with the Cross, which was to be the instrument of His 
death, and led Him out of the city, to the place of His 
execution. Here we close our imperfect notice of the 
antecedents of the death of Christ; and shall now proceed 
to consider that melancholy event itself, as an historical 
fact. And, 

1. The death of Christ was judicial. In being so, it 
was of course, a matter of record. It was not left to the 
loose and uncertain commemoration of tradition, nor to 
the thousand mutilations, perversions and exaggerations 
of rumor. Whatever motive might afterwards induce 
either friends or foes to garble the history or misrepre- 
sent the character of the death of Christ, the truth, with 
regard to them, could be ascertained, by an examination 
of the official records in the case. This, considering the 
importance which has ever been ascribed to that event, is 
a circumstance of no inconsiderable value. If His enemies 
desire to overwhelm His memory with opprobium, by 
representing Him as having been condemned fur crimes, 
meriting by their enormity His ignominious doom, or by 
ascribing to Him weakness, remorse, ruffian hardihood or 
desperation, in His death-agony, they will be restrained 
or may be corrected by the judicial record. Or, if His 
friends, under the promptings of an erring desire to pro- 
mote His honor, as has too often been the case, should 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 377 

ascribe factitious incidents to His trial or death, the record 
will hold them in check, or rectify the false representations, 
which their mistaken zeal or pseudo piety has prompted 
them to pass upon a credulous world. 

2. His death was public, and was rendered a matter of 
great notoriety by many circumstances, which stood related 
to it. It occurred during the Passover, a principal festival 
of the Jews, at which all, who could do so, were required 
and were disposed to be present : — His previous teaching 
and miracles had excited great interest throughout the 
whole country of Judea and Galilee: — the facts, that 
He had been arraigned before the High Priest and his 
council, before Herod and Pontius Pilate, and had been 
condemned and sentenced to the Cross, on charges of 
blasphemy and sedition against the imperial authority, 
were calculated to attract the attention of the vast crowds, 
who were assembled for the Passover, to the spectacle of 
His crucifixion. Accordingly, the Evangelist, with char- 
acteristic simplicity, states that " many came together to 
that sight." This was important, not only that there 
might be many witnesses of His deportment in the hour 
"which tries men's souls;" but, especially, that there 
might be no possibility of successfully denying the f ict of 
His death — a fact which His enemies would have strong 
-temptation to discredit, when His resurrection should be 
proclaimed to the world. And, they probably would have 
questioned the fact of His death, if there had not been 
many who witnessed it, and who had ocular evidence of its 
absolute certainty. 

3. His death was by a process, to which only slaves 
could lawfully be subjected. It is true, that the Romans 
considered all whom they conquered in war liable to this 



378 DEATH AND BUKTAL OP CHRIST. 

punishment ; but, then, they considered all such as slaves. 
It was, therefore, an ignominious mode of execution. It 
was not less barbarous than it was humiliating. The suf- 
ferer was extended upon the Cross — His hands and feet 
were fastened to it, either by cords or nails, and made to 
bear the entire weight of the bod}\ The cross was then 
erected ; and the sufferer was left to linger out his last 
hours in excruciating pain, till famine or intense anguish 
should bring him relief in death. This, sometimes, did 
not occur for days' — generally, it would seem, for more 
than three hours ; for, when, at the end of three hours, it 
was proposed to Pilate that the bodies of Christ and the 
two others that were crucified with him, should be removed 
from the crosses on which they had suffered, "he marveled 
if they were already dead ; and commanded that their legs 
should be broken," doubtless, as a security against their 
escape, should they not be dead. The order was executed 
upon the other two — probably there were indications of 
life in them. But, " when they came to Jesus, and saw 
that He was dead already, they brake not His legs." 
But, to " make assurance doubly sure," as to the reality 
of His death, " one of the soldiers with a spear pierced 
His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." 
The heart is surrounded by a considerable quantity of 
water — probably designed to prevent that active and all- 
important muscle from becoming rigid. This water is 
enclosed in a sac, called the pericardium. The only 
sources, whence the double efflux, which followed the 
spear of the soldier, could have been drawn, were the 
pericardium and the heart ; both of which must have been 
penetrated by that spear. Here, then, besides the ordinary 
evidences that life was extinct in Christ — evidences which 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 379 

prevented the soldiers from breaking His legs, and, doubt- 
less, satisfied the surrounding multitude of His death, was 
a phenomenon which rendered any doubt of the fact 
utterly impossible. 

The burial of Christ is among those things which St. 
Paul, having received by revelation from God, declared 
to the Corinthians; and, for this reason, but especially 
because of its very important connection with the question 
of His resurrection, it -ought not to be passed over in 
silence by us, on the present occasion. It was, moreover, 
deemed of sufficient importance to be the subject of a 
very explicit prediction by the Prophet Isaiah, " He made 
His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death." 
Christ was crucified on the day preceding the Sabbath of 
the Passover-solemnity, which Sabbath was, in the estima- 
tion of the Jews, " a high day" — a day of peculiar dignity, 
if not of peculiar sanctity also. The Jews, sufficiently 
regardful of ceremonial observances, however delinquent 
they might be in reference to spiritual religion and moral 
duty, were unwilling that the bodies of the crucified should 
remain on their crosses during that holy season; and they, 
accordingly, besought Pilate that they might be removed 
before its commencement. On this request being granted, 
Joseph, of Arimathea, a rich man and a Counselor, or 
member of the Sanhedrim, begged the body of Christ 
from Pilate ; and, with the assistance of Nicodemus, 
another member of the Sanhedrim, decently interred it in 
Joseph's own sepulchre, a new one, hewn in a rock, and 
which had never been occupied. To the entrance, of this 
strong habitation of death, " a great stone was rolled ;" 
and thus was completed the burial of Christ. 

How deep the gloom that now settled down upon the 



380 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

prospects of infant Christianity ! How sad and hopeless 
the condition of the disciples, who had followed Christ in 
His brief but brilliant career, of somewhat more than three 
years, into which He had crowded so much valuable 
instruction and so many and so mighty works of benefi- 
cence to man ! They " had trusted that it had been He 
which should have redeemed Israel." And, this they 
understood of deliverance from temporal bondage — from 
the dominion of their conquerors, and of a triumphant 
return of those who had been carried into captivity, to 
their own country — their re-establishment in their former 
possessions, and a return of their ancient prosperity. By 
the death of Christ, this trust was rendered nugatory. 
They had expected, as is evident from much of their 
history, by fidelity and devotion to their wonderful Master, 
to win for themselves places of power and distinction, in 
" the kingdom of His father David," which they supposed 
He would restore, and of which He would be the King. 
How blasted their ambitious hopes, when they saw their 
Master expire in ignominy on the Cross, and shut up in 
the tomb ! It was a season of triumph to His enemies ; 
of disaster, defeat and despair to His friends. Little did 
the former — little did even the latter suspect that His 
death was the achievement which was to place Him on 
the throne of universal dominion — to "open the prison 
doors," not of captive Jews and enslaved Israelites alone, 
but of the enthralled human race, held in bondage to a 
captivity, incomparably more galling and degrading than 
that of Assyria, of Babylon or of Rome. Little did His 
disciples, in this hour of dismay and disappointment, 
imagine that the Cross of their Master was to be the 
means of their elevation to a dignity and an honor, before 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 381 

which the glory, not only of earthly ministers of State, 
but that of kings and emperors, would pale into insignifi- 
cance. Yet, thus it was to be 1 And, thus had Christ 
diligently endeavored to instruct His disciples it would 
and must be. He had reiterated to them, in clear, strong 
language, the, to them, most unwelcome truths, that He 
must be betrayed into the hands of men — must suffer 
and die, to accomplish the purpose for which He came 
into the world — that they, His disciples, instead of the 
earthly greatness of which they fondly dreamed, " should 
be hated of all men for His name's sake :" that their 
" names should be cast out as evil:" that "every one 
who should kill them, would think that he did God 
service :" that " in the world, they should have tribula- 
tion." But they were "dull of hearing," to these important 
teachings, and they clung, with inveterate pertinacity, to 
the prevalent opinion of the Jews concerning the Messiah. 
That their Master was that long-promised Personage, the 
disciples did not and could not entertain a doubt; but, 
fully imbued with the Jewish error, concerning the 
Messiah, which represented Him as a victorious temporal 
prince, achieving the independence and supremacy of 
Israel, they could not apprehend the meaning of His 
instructions on the subject. And, not till the death of 
their Master, could they be made to understand His 
teaching, plain as it was, and frequently as He endeavored 
to impress it upon their minds. But, now that Christ was 
ignominiously dead, they must either renounce their 
belief in Him, as the Messiah, or they must correct their 
opinions of what the Messiah was to be. The former, 
they could not do. He had afforded them so many and 
so convincing evidences that He was the promised Mes- 



382 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

Biah, that, without doing utter violence to the plainest 
dictates of sober reason and unsophisticated common- 
sense, they could not divest themselves of the conviction 
that He was the Messiah. Hence, they must correct 
their opinions concerning that Personage. And, now, 
with what new significance do the earnest and reiterated 
teachings of their Master appear to them ! There wanted 
but one other event, in the fate of their Master, to enable 
them to understand these teachings, and soon was that 
event to occur. And, then the dismayed, disheartened 
and cowering disciples should stand forth, before a world 
of enemies, boldly to proclaim their Master the Messiah, 
and clearly to exhibit the true character and vast import- 
ance of His death. Had the death of Christ been, as 
rationalistic divinity would fain make us believe, no more 
than the death of a great and good man, attesting His 
belief of the doctrines He had taught, and presenting an 
example of patience, meekness and magnanimity, in great 
sufferings and in an unjust and cruel death, it would merit 
no higher consideration than the death of Isaiah or Peter, 
or of thousands of others, whom the malice of wicked men 
has subjected to torture and to death, " for righteousness 
sake." Nor, on this supposition, can the rapid transition 
of the disciples of Christ, from abject cowardice, to a 
courage which nothing could daunt — from the deepest 
gloom and despondency, to exultant joy and triumphant 
confidence, be rationally accounted for. But, when the 
true character and purpose of the death of Christ are 
known, its importance is seen to be transcendent ; and 
the change in the disciples, supposing them to have come 
to a knowledge of these after His death, is perfectly rea- 
sonable. To the peculiar nature and purpose of the death 



DEATH AND BUKIAL OF CHRIST. 383 

of Christ, we shall now invite attention. It was vicarious 
on behalf of man; and it was expiatory of mans sin. 

The vicarious character of the death of Christ, is clearly 
indicated in the reason assigned for the incarnation of 
Divinity in the humanity, in His person — "Forasmuch 
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also 
Himself likewise took part of the same, that, through 
death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, 
this is the Devil; and deliver them who, through fear of 
death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." He 
was incarnated, that He might die ; and His death was to 
be for the deliverance of the children of the original trans- 
gressors, as well as for that of the transgressors themselves* 
The authorities, for the vicarious character of the death 
of Christ, are too numerous to be stated in this Discourse. 
We shall adduce only a small portion of them. Isaiah 
liii, 4-8 : " Surely He hath borne our grief and carried 
our sorrows : yet, we did esteem Him stricken, smitten 
of God and afflicted. But, He was wounded for our 
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him ; and with His 
stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone 
astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and 
the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He 
was oppressed, and He was afflicted ; yet He opened not 
His mouth : He is brought, as a lamb, to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openetb 
not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from 
judgment ; and who shall declare His generation ? for 
He was cut off out of the land of the living : for the 
transgression of my people was He stricken." Daniel ix, 
26 : "And, after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah 



384 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

be cut off, but not for Himself." Romans iv, 24, 25 : 
u — believe on Him, who raised up Jesus, our Lord, from 
the dead ; Who was delivered for our offenses and raised 
again for our justification." Romans v, 8 : "God com- 
mendeth His love to us, in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us." 1 Corinthians xv, 3 : " I 
delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, 
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip- 
tures." Galatians iii, 13: "Christ hath redeemed us 
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us : for 
it is written, ' Cursed is every one that hangeth on a 
tree.'" 1 Thessalonians v, 9, 10: "Our Lord Jesus 
Christ, Who died for us ; that, whether we wake or sleep, 
we should live together with Him." Hebrews vii, 26, 
27 : " Such a High Priest became us, who is holy, harm- 
less, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher 
than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high 
priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and 
then for the people's ; for, this He did once, when He 
offered up Himself." Hebrews ix, 26, 28 : (Christ) 
"hath appeared to put away sin, by the sacrifice of 
Himself — was once offered to bear the sins of many." 
1 Peter ii, 21, 24 : " Christ also suffered for us — bare 
our sins in His own body on the tree." 1 Peter iv, 1 : 
" Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh." We produce 
but one more authority on this point — Revelation i, 5, 6 : 
" Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in 
His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion, 
forever and ever. Amen !" There is the less necessity 
to multiply authorities in support of this point, as it is, 
we believe, in some sort, conceded by all who receive the 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 385 

sacred Scriptures as the rule of their faith. Even those 
whose rationalistic tendencies have induced them to place 
the lowest estimate upon the claims of Christ, allow Him 
the honor of having both lived and died for the benefit of 
others rather than of Himself. This, though, in some 
sort, expressing what is vicarious, does not express our 
views of the sense in which His life and death were for, 
on behalf of mankind ; yet, it saves the advocates of such 
low views, of Christ's intervention in behalf of man, from 
the charge of direct opposition to the word of truth. In 
our view of Scripture-teachings, the death of Christ is 
represented as vicarious in the sense of substitution — 
that He died in the stead of man : so, that, so far as the 
original transgression was concerned, man is, by the death 
of Christ, redeemed from the guilt and death incurred by it; 
and with regard to the actual sins of the original trans- 
gressors after the Fall, and of their descendants, the 
offenders are redeemed from the death due to those sins, 
so soon as they secure a personal interest in the substitu- 
tion, by laying the hands of faith upon the vicarious 
victim, and confessing over Him, with proper penitence, 
the sins which they have committed. In other words, we 
consider the death of Christ expiatory of the sins of 
mankind — absolutely so of the original transgression — 
provisionally, of all other sins, properly brought within 
the scope of its influence ; and this, we shall now endeavor 
to show, is the scriptural doctrine on the subject. 

1. The sacrifices required, under the Patriarchal and 
Levitical dispensations, are represented by St. Paul as of 
no intrinsic efficacy, in effecting an amicable relation 
between God and offending mankind — as deriving their 
whole value from their representative character. And,, 

25 



386 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

who can doubt the correctness of this representation? 
Who can fail to see that "it is not possible that the blood 
of bulls and of goats should take away sin?" And, yet, 
great stress is, in the Mosaic law, laid on the requirement 
that sacrifices of these should be offered for the taking 
away of sin! Whence this importance? We answer, 
from the fact that they were intended to u serve unto the 
example and shadow of heavenly things." From the fact 
that these sacrifices pre-represented the one great, effective 
Sacrifice, in which Christ did " put away sin, by the sacri- 
fice of Himself." It will not, we think, be denied that, 
among the sacrifices which were to "serve unto the 
example and shadow of heavenly things" — things con- 
formed to the mind and purpose of God — those which 
were expiatory were prominent, and absolutely required 
of all. In what had these examples their exemplication 
— these shadows their substance, if the death of Christ 
for man w r ere not expiatory? There is nothing else in 
His relation to man, or in the purpose of His death, that 
at all answers to these examples and shadows. This fact 
alone ought to be considered conclusive evidence that, by 
His death, Christ expiated the sins of those for whom 
He offered Himself a sacrifice. And, we apprehend, it 
will be extremely difficult, on any other supposition, to 
make out any pertinency in these examples and shadows, 
to anything in the life or death of Christ; or, indeed, any 
wise reason of their being emphatically enjoined on the 
Israelites, in their initial and preparatory religious system. 
2. But, these reasonings apart, if there be any reliable 
signification in the language of the Sacred Scriptures, the 
chief intention of the death of Christ was the expiation of 
the sins of mankind. We shall briefly notice a few of the 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 387 

many pnssnges of Holy Writ which clearly and expressly 
teach this important doctrine. 

(1.) The fifty-third chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, 
is, we believe, universally considered, by those who accredit 
the New Testament, as a Divine Revelation, as being a 
prophetic representation of Christ, as to His character, 
His reception among men, His death and its purpose. In 
that chapter, from the fourth to the twelfth verse, both 
inclusive, we have the following eloquent and soul-stirring 
account of His death and the purposes to be accomplished 
by it: "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our 
sorrows; } f et we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God 
and afflicted. But, He was wounded for our transgressions, 
He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our 
peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. 
All we, like sheep, have gone astray: we have turned 
every one to His own way ; and the LORD hath laid on 
Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He 
was afflicted; yet, He opened not His mouth: He is 
brought, as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He 
was taken from prison and from judgment; and, who shall 
declare His generation? for, He was cut off out of the 
land of the living: for the transgression of my people was 
He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked 
and with the rich in His death; because He had done no 
violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it 
pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to 
grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, 
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and 
the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He 
shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied : 



388 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will 
I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall 
divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured 
out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the 
transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made 
intercession for the transgressors." We should deem an 
elaborate exposition of this passage, with a view to prove 
that the death of Christ was expiatory, an affront upon 
even an ordinary understanding. This doctrine is so 
clearly expressed, and in such a variety of forms of 
speech, as must commend it to the conviction of every 
candid man, whose mind is not preoccupied with some 
opinion, to which it cannot be reconciled. 

(2.) We next invite attention to Mattheiv xx, 28: 
" The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." 1 
Timothy ii, 5, 6 : " The man, Christ Jesus, Who gave Him- 
self a ransom for all." Acts xx, 28 : " Feed the Church 
of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." 
Titus ii, 13, 14: "Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who gave 
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all 
iniquity;" and Revelation v, 9: "Thou wast slain, and 
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." In these pas- 
sages, we are said to be ransomed, purchased, redeemed by 
Christ's giving His life, giving Himself, with His bloody 
with His oiun Mood. We understand the various terms 
employed, in regard to the objects accomplished, to be 
identical in signification; and so we understand the terms 
and phrases used to express the means by which it was 
accomplished. That is, we understand that the same thing 
is meant by ramom, purchase and redemption; and that 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 389- 

giving His life and giving Himself are equivalent in mean- 
ing to the shedding of His blood. Man had sold Himself 
into bondage "under the curse of the law" — had been 
taken captive, through his iniquity. Christ gave Himself, 
gave His life, poured out His blood to purchase, ransom, 
redeem him from his bondage. If such be not the mean- 
ing of these portions of Scripture, their language is only 
calculated to mislead their reader. 

(3.) Romans iv, 24, 25: "Jesus, our Lord, . . . Who 
was delivered for our offenses." Romans v, 6-11: "For 
when we were without strength, in due time, Christ died 
for the ungodly. God commendeth His love towards us, 
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; 
When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the 
death of His Son. We — joy in God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atone- 
ment." Romans viii, 32 : " He that spared not His own 
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, 
with Him, also freely give us all things?" Hebrews ix, 
28: "Christ was once offered, to bear the sins of many." 
1 Peter ir, 24: "His own self bare our sins in His own body 
on the tree." We understand the phrases delivered and 
delivered up, in these texts, to mean being surrendered up 
to be put to death. Our Saviour Himself uses this form 
of speech to express His own consignment to the hands 
of His murderers— see Luke ix, 44, and xviii, 32. Offered 
is a term so often and so almost exclusively used in regard 
to presenting sacrifices to God, that, taken in connection 
with the purpose for which Christ was offered, i. e. " to 
bear the sins of many," we cannot hesitate to believe that 
the text quoted above, in which this term is employed, is 
to be understood as representing Christ as a sacrifice, 



390 DEATH AND BDTtlAL OF CHEIST. 

bearing — suffering for — the sins of many. That His 
being delivered, offered, dying for mankind, bearing their 
sins in His own body on the tree, reconciling us to God 
by His death, conferring on us the atonement, clearly 
express the expiatory character of His death, seems to us 
altogether incontestable, with any decent regard to the 
meaning of Scripture-language. 

(4.) We make one more quotation, which, to our appre- 
hension, abundantly proves that the death of Christ was 
both vicarious and expiatory. 1 Peter iii, 18: "Christ 
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust; 
that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the 
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." What is meant by 
the once suffering of Christ, is obvious, from the explana- 
tory clause inserted by the apostle — "being put to 
death in the flesh." The occasion of His suffering death 
is stated — it was for, or on account of sin, that He suf- 
fered; so, also, is the purpose of His suffering stated — 
"to bring us to God." Man was so utterly separated 
from God by sin, as that, by no means, within the scope 
of his own capabilities, could he, by any possibility, return 
to Him. Christ suffered for his sin: that He might open 
to man " a new and living way, through the veil, that is 
to say His flesh," by which he might return to the Divine 
favor. 

3. The expiatory character of the death of Christ, may,, 
we think, be conclusively inferred from the peculiar 
agony of that death. We do not mean by this, the 
agony of His death as it was by crucifixion. This hor- 
rible death, thousands have endured, without any of them, 
as we suppose, suffering the agony which He suffered, 
both in prospect of it and under its infliction. And, 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 391 

every indication goes to support the supposition that His 
agony was of the spirit, rather than of the flesh. And 
whence was this agony of spirit? Was He not absolutely 
pure, and upright in His life? No pang of remorse 
throbbed in His pure and guileless heart. Did He lack 
courage, fortitude or magnanimity? Were not they all 
strikingly exemplified, in His life of sorrow, in the 
ingratitude He encountered from His beneficiaries, in the 
unfaithfulness of His friends, in the malice, contradictions 
and persecutions of His enemies? Where can we find an 
instance of weakness, impatience or repining in His whole 
life of poverty, toil and social annoyance? Yet, hear 
Him, in the vale of Kedron, when contemplating the near 
approach of death, declare to His disciples : " My soul is 
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death!" See Him pros- 
trate upon the ground, in an agony of supplication, that 
" if it were possible, the cup might pass from Him — 
that He should be saved from the hour 1 ' that was upon 
Him. Mark the mingled sweat and blood, which agony 
of soul had wrung from His sympathetic body! Hear 
Him on the Cross, in tones of bitterest anguish, remon- 
strating with His Heavenly Father: "My God! My God! 
why hast Thou forsaken me?" Is this the brave-hearted, 
the firm-minded, the patient and the virtuous Jesus, who 
walked, with head unbowed and spirits unperturbed, alike 
through the midst of infuriate mobs and upon the waves 
of the troubled sea? Where now are His courage, His 
patience, His fortitude, His magnanimity, if thus He 
quails under the prospect or under the actual suffering of 
death, though that death is by the Cross? But, no! It 
is not the simple pain of death, either in prospect or in 
endurance, that agonizes His soul thus fearfully — it is 



392 DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 

the weight of a world's sins — the terrible exactions of an 
inexorable law, whose penalty He intercepts from man, by 
exposing His own soul to its infliction. 0, Sin ! how hor- 
rible must be thy nature, how deadly thine influence, since 
the guilt thou hast fastened upon man, could be expiated 
only by such agony on the part of God's only-begotten, 
well-beloved Son! 

The Divinity took part of humanity, that, through 
death, He might rescue man from the fearful consequences 
of his sin. This He did, because, in the economy of the 
Divine government, as we are assured by Revelation, 
"without the shedding of blood is no remission" of sin. 
Why the shedding of blood or the offering of sacrifice, 
for this purpose, is necessary or availing, we know not 
But, we do know that the fact is clearly revealed. This 
ought to satisfy us, since the offended Sovereign has an 
unquestionable right to prescribe His own terms of recon- 
ciliation to His revolted and rebellious subjects. The 
necessary sacrifice, for the redemption of man, could have 
been offered by no creature; because no creature has aught 
to offer that does not already belong to God, and because 
creatures, not having independent life, would have been 
finally lost, had they made the sacrifice required, which 
was death. To meet this exigency, the Divinity appeared 
" in the likeness of sinful flesh." The humanity could 
die, the Divinity, in union mysterious with that humanity, 
could impart to its death the required merit — could 
sustain it in the agony of an expiatory death, and could 
restore it to life, and exalt it to glory, as the reward of 
its vicarious sufferings. The Divinity could not suffer, 
-could not die; but the humanity could suffer; and the 
Divinity could impart efficacy, for man's redemption, to 



DEATH AND BURIAL OF CHRIST. 393 

that suffering. The humanity could die; and the 
Divinity could restore it to life. "Great," then "is the 
mystery of godliness! God was manifest in the flesh ;" 
and, in His incarnate state accomplished, through the 
expiatory death of His humanity, the redemption of man. 
And, great as the mystery of this stupendous transaction, 
its mercy was equal in greatness to its mystery. Hence, 
every human heart should swell with gratitude to God 
for His incomparable mercy; and, this gratitude should 
manifest itself by utter hatred to sin, which cost the 
Redeemer so much, and by life-long devotion to His 
service, and to the advancement of that cause in which 
He has shown Himself so deeply interested — the refor- 
mation, the salvation and the happiness of the human 
race. Especially, should a consideration of the mercy 
of God, in Christ Jesus, induce in every individual, sin- 
cere penitence for sins, humble confidence in the kindness 
and faithfulness of Him, who, while we were yet sinners, 
and enemies by wicked works, had such compassion on 
us as to expiate our sins by His own death, and ardent, 
devoted and self-sacrificing love to Him, who " first loved 
us, and gave Himself for us," that He might bring us back 
to God, restore us to the Divine f ivor, and secure to us "an 
inheritance incorruptible, unde filed and that fxdeth not 
away — eternal in the heavens." It should prompt us to 
earnest, persevering endeavors to "glorify Him in our 
bodies and spirits which are His" — purchased with His 
own blood, in the unutterable agonies of the Cross. It will 
give a new, a deeper, a sweeter tone to the harmony of 
heaven, as the blood-washed multitudes fill the domes of 
their holy habitation with the grateful song of Redemption. 



DISCOURSE XII. 

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
The Lord is risen indeed. — Luke xxiv, 34. 

The death and burial of our Lord Jesus Christ were the 
subjects of our last Discourse. At its close, we left Him 
lying in the tomb, the close prisoner of Death, from whose 
sure custody no human being had ever yet effected his 
own escape, or been so delivered, by any other agency, 
as not to be liable to return under his power. Doubtless, 
His enemies, both human and infernal, exulted in the 
triumph they had achieved over one who had occasioned 
them so much annoyance, and whose power and resources 
had been so mysterious and so formidable to them. They 
now imagined that His resources were exhausted and that 
His power was overcome ; and, we may readily conceive 
that such joy, as wicked men and Devils can feel, was 
at its utmost height ; when, hovering around His cross, 
they saw Him expire in ignominy and agony, and when 
they beheld Him incarcerated, cold, stark and nerve ess, 
in His rock-strong sepulchre. May we not well suppose 
that the Devils, who had cowered and fled from their 
chosen haunts, at His presence and His bidding, and that 
their proud and powerful Chief, who had been signally 

394 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 395 

foiled in an encounter with this mysterious Personage, 
would celebrate His downfall, with a triumph as hearty 
and as boisterous as that which the Philistines exhibited 
on the occasion of the captivity of their terrible enemy, 
Samson ? May we not justly imagine that their shout 
of exultation swelled through all the vast caverns of their 
hideous habitation ? Nor less triumphant were the con- 
gratulations, with which the envious Priests, the bigoted 
Pharisees and the sensual, skeptical Sadducees greeted 
one another, around the cross and the sepulchre of Him, 
whose simplicity, truth and purity had excited in their 
bosoms such implacable hostility. 

Meantime, His few friends were cast down and over- 
whelmed. Their incomparable Teacher, their tender and 
sympathetic Friend, whom they loved with ardor, respected 
with admiration and trusted with confidence, was ruthlessly 
torn from them, by treacherous, cruel and murderous 
hands. Their hopes, for humanity, for their country and 
for themselves, which had confidently anchored upon His 
wisdom, His goodness and His power, were rudely driven 
from their holdings ; and they saw themselves cast upon 
the turbulent sea of an unfriendly world at the mercy of 
its angry waves, and without the guidance of a Pilot or 
the assurance of a secure anchorage or harbor. Not- 
withstanding the plain and oft-repeated assurances of their 
Master, that He should suffer a death of violence, and, 
afterwards, rise from the dead, His death was to them an 
astounding surprise ; and " they knew not the Scripture, 
that He must rise again from the dead." Their Jewish 
prejudices, concerning the Messiah, whom they firmly 
believed their Master to be, had taken such fast hold 
upon them, that their minds were stultified ; so, that, 



396 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

although they reposed entire confidence in the truth of 
their Master's teaching they could not and did not under- 
stand His teaching; in regard to His death and resurrection. 
When the former event occurred, they were, consequently, 
overwhelmed, confounded and disheartened ; and did not 
expect that the latter event, always, in their Master's 
teaching, connected with the former, would also occur. 
This is evident, from the whole history of the state of 
mind which prevailed among the disciples, in the interval 
between the death and resurrection of Christ* and from 
their "slowness of heart to believe," even when the 
evidences of His resurrection were accumulated upon 
them in such force as to demand credence, and to imply 
stupidity or perversion in the mind which did not accord 
to it the credence demanded. This circumstance, however 
derogatory to the ingenuousness of the disciples, is no 
slight presumption, in favor of the testimony they after- 
wards bore, with so much consistency and pertinacity, in 
the most discouraging circumstances, to the resurrection 
of Christ ; as that event was in contradiction to all their 
previous calculations. 

Both the enemies and friends of Christ, then, considered 
His death as the complete and final overthrow of Chris- 
tianity — the utter defeat of an enterprise, in which His 
early prospects of success were so alarming to the former 
and so cheering to the latter. Neither enemy nor friend 
was aware that the death of Christ was an event upon 
which His triumph over all His foes, and upon which the 
glorious success of His enterprise was absolutely dependent 
That death expiated the guilt of man's transgression, 
poured a new tide of moral life, upon a world " dead in 
trespasses and sins," and opened " a new and living way," 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 397 

by which the banished from the presence and favor of 
God might return. 

But, though the disciples of Christ, believing, as they 
did, that He was the Messiah, and unable to reconcile His 
death with their Jewish prejudices concerning that illus- 
trious Personage, did not understand His frequent 
predictions, that He should die, and that He should rise 
from the dead. His enemies, who did not believe Him to 
be the Messiah, understood them perfectly. Hence, after 
His burial, they went to Pilate and said to him, " Sir, we 
remember that that deceiver said, while He was }'et alive, 
1 after three days, I will rise again.' Command, therefore, 
that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest 
His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say 
to the people, ' he is risen from the dead :* so that the 
last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto 
them, c ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as 
ye can.' So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, 
sealing the stone, and setting a watch." — Mattheiv xxvii, 
63-66. This precaution, had Christ been the impostor 
His enemies represented Him to be, would have been 
altogether proper ; especially as it was wholly improbable 
that they should have supposed it possible that the disci- 
ples could have misapprehended their Master's teaching, 
in regard to His resurrection. Still, judicious as this pre- 
caution must be admitted to have been, it was, owing to 
the misapprehension of the disciples on the subject, their 
utter despondency and more than feminine timidity, 
wholly unnecessary. They who had been scattered like 
sheep, when their Master was apprehended, can hardly be 
supposed to have been capable of so bold an act as that 
of taking away the body of their murdered Master, though 



398 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

no official seal had rendered His tomb inviolable, and 
though no armed guard defended that body from abduction. 
The precaution taken, was, however, of vast importance — 
it rendered nugatory and even absurd any attempt to 
account for the absence of Christ's body from the sealed 
and guarded sepulchre, that did not proceed on the 
supposition of super-human agency — especially, as the 
baffled guards were alive, to testify to the facts in the case. 
On the morning of the third day, the sepulchre of 
Christ presented subjects of curious and deeply-interesting 
investigation, to all who had been concerned at His death, 
whether as friends or as foes. The official seal had been 
broken — the great stone, which had closed the entrance 
into the tomb, had been rolled away — and the body of 
Christ was gone. These were facts, about which there 
was and could be no mistake, no doubt. How did all 
this happen ? would be the natural inquiry of every one, 
in any way interested in the matter. Among those, thus 
interested, the " Chief Priests and Pharisees," who nego- 
tiated with Pilate the making of the sepulchre sure, would, 
of course, be prominently active. And, they were so ; 
for, they were the first to publish an account of this mys- 
terious affair. That account was simple enough — it was, 
that, tuhile the guards at the sepulchre slept, during the 
night before the third dag, the disciples of Christ came and 
stole aivag the body. This is given as the testimony of 
the guards themselves. Is there any probability in this 
account ? Is it probable that a military corps would sleep 
on their post, when they knew that there was so strong 
solicitude, on the part of the influential murderers of 
Christ, that they should, by their vigilance, render impos- 
sible the abstraction of the body by the disciples ? Was 



RESURRECTION OP CHRIST. 399 

it at nil likely that the disciples should attempt such an 
enterprise, knowing, as they must, that there was a guard 
stationed around the sepulchre to prevent its success? 
Supposing it possible for them to have desired to have in 
their possession the lifeless body of their Master, can we 
conceive of their having courage to attempt the obtaining 
of it in the circumstances in which they and that body 
were placed ? And, why should they desire possession 
of their Master's body ? Even the body of Sarah, when 
deprived of life, became irksome to her long and devotedly- 
attached husband ; so that he was anxious to "bury it out 
of his sight." It certainly was not that they might give 
the body of their Master decent and honorable burial, that 
the disciples should have desired to have it in their pos- 
session ; for, already had Joseph and Nicodemus given it 
sepulture, in a style far superior to any which their means 
would- enable them to afford to it. And, as His resurrec- 
tion from the dead w r as not a part of the creed they had 
adopted in regard to Him, they had and could have no 
temptation to steal the body, with a view to the propaga- 
tion of a falsehood on that point. We can see no reason 
whatever why the disciples should have desired to get the 
body of their Master in their possession, even had there 
been no difficulty or danger in the attempt to obtain it. 
But, what is the testimony on which the disciples are 
charged with stealing the body of their Master ? It is 
the testimony of men, who, by their own account, were 
asleep when the act which the}' attest was being performed! 
Supposing their testimony believed, by their employers, 
would those guards have escaped severe animadversion ? 
To sleep on his post, was, in a soldier, a capital offense, 
punishable with death. Is it probable that the " Chief 



400 RESUEEECTION OF CHRIST. 

Priests and Pharisees," who had so anxiously sought to 
prevent the body of Christ from being stolen by His 
disciples, would have been indulgent toward these soldiers, 
whose acknowledged delinquency had defeated their so 
much cherished purpose ? Yet, we hear of no stir made 
by them to bring those culpable soldiers to condign 
punishment ! Whence this incongruous lenity, in men 
who had hunted the innocent Jesus to death ? The fact 
is that the soldiers had told them the truth, and that they 
were unwilling that the truth should be told to any others: 
so, they invented this account, and bribed the soldiers, 
with money and promises of protection, to give it currency 
among the people. And, surely, there never was a 
clumsier invention, a tissue of grosser absurdity palmed 
upon the world ! 

There is another account of these mysterious phenomena. 
It is, briefly, that Christ arose from the dead on the morning 
of the third day after His crucifixion. Only these two 
modes of accounting for the events at the sepulchre of 
Christ, were resorted to at the time. One of these, we 
have just considered — the other now solicits our attention. 
If the resurrection of Christ were affirmed to have been 
brought about by the operation of any law of nature, 
every one would and must unhesitatingly pronounce that 
it never so occurred. But, such is not the representation. 
The resurrection of Christ is assigned to an agency, which 
all but atheists must at once allow to be fully competent 
to the production of such an event — the power of Deity. 
The only rational questions on the subject, then, are, 
would that power be exerted to produce such an event? 
and, was it actually exerted ? These questions must look 
exclusively to Revelation for their answer ; as they do 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 401 

not fall within the scope of established order, in the 
economy of either creation or providence. Yet, there is, 
in the exhibitions of Divine character, in that established 
order, sufficient manifestations of interest in the well-being 
of His creatures and subjects, on the part of God, to 
render it at least not improbable that He would exert the 
power in question, did the well-being of His creatures 
require its exertion. On this point, we may not now 
dwell ; and we will, therefore, only observe that, both in 
the creation and government of man, God has evinced a 
degree of munificence which warrants the belief that no 
good thing, consistent with the accountable relation of 
man, will be withholden. Beyond this simple fact, that, 
if the exigency called for such an exertion of Divine 
power, as was necessary to the resurrection of Christ from 
the dead, it is not improbable the power would be exerted, 
we consider ourselves wholly dependent on Revelation for 
all we can know on the subject of that resurrection. 
And, to the evidences, afforded by Revelation for the 
attestation of Christ's resurrection, we shall now invite 
attention ; and, 

1. A considerable number of persons, of unblemished 
moral character, respectable for both intellect and intelli- 
gence, having no conceivable motive for bearing false 
testimony in the case, but with very strong inducements 
to be at least silent with respect to the resurrection of 
Christ, declare, in the most explicit terms, that they had 
seen, conversed with, and had frequent opportunities of 
manual examination of their Master, after He arose from 
the dead. They knew Him intimately — they saw Him 
often, not alone in the gloom of night, but also in the 
light of day — not alone when they were separated from 

26 



402 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

each other, but when they were together — not at a 
distance, but in the midst of them — not for a hurried 
moment, but in long-continued interviews. They could 
not have been in error as to His identity — they could as 
easily have erred in regard to their own. They saw His 
familiar face — they heard the voice which had so often 
thrilled their hearts with pleasure — they recurred, with 
Him, to the scenes of their former intercourse — He 
repeated to them and explained His former teachings. 
They saw, and probably handled, the scars of those 
wounds through which He had so recently "poured out 
His soul unto death." He called their special attention 
to His lacerated hands and feet, by which He was nailed 
to the Cross, and to His pierced side, whence had issued 
the irrefragable evidences of His death. How was it 
possible they should mistake in regard to His identity ? 
As little could they err in regard to the fact that He, 
whom they had seen dead on the Cross, was now alive. 
They saw Him move, they heard Him speak, they ate 
and drank with Him. He gave them, as they themselves 
declare, " infallible signs" of His being alive again. 

The account these witnesses give, of the particulars of 
the resurrection of Christ, is not pretended by them to 
have been derived from their own personal observation. 
How they obtained it, they do not inform us — perhaps 
they received it from the Master Himself. It is exceed- 
ingly simple, and truth-like, in the style in which it is 
related. " A great earthquake," occasioned by the descent 
of an angel of the Lord, arouses attention — perhaps it 
was intended to herald the stupendous event which was 
about to occur. The "angel of the Lord," which had 
" descended from heaven, came and rolled back the stone 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 403 

from the door" (of the sepulchre where the body of Jesus 
lay) "and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, 
and his raiment white as snow ; and for fear of him the 
keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the 
angel answered and said unto the women," (who had 
come to anoint the body of Christ,) " Fear not ye ; for, I 
know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not 
here ; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place 
where the Lord lay." — Matthew xxviii, 2-6. From this 
simple statement of facts, it appears that it was not by 
the ministry of the angel that Christ arose from the dead 
— his ministry extended only to the producing of the 
earthquake, the rolling away of the stone which shut the 
entrance to the tomb, the overawing of the guard and the 
informing of the women of the resurrection of Christ. It 
was by the power of His own Divinity that the bonds of 
death were loosed. He had declared that He " had power 
to lay down His life, and power to take it again." On 
the Cross, when all was finished that was necessary to the 
accomplishment of His great design in coming into the 
world, "He gave up the ghost" — or, as some render the 
original, dismissed His spirit — thus exemplifying His 
power of laying down His life ; and, now, on the morning 
of the third day after His crucifixion, He breaks away 
from the captivity of death, and lives again by His own 
divine power, thereby verifying His claim to the power 
of taking again the life He had laid down. 

2. We have already, in a former Discourse, adverted to 
the astonishing change which the resurrection of Christ 
produced, upon the character of His disciples — especially 
of the Apostles. At the time of His apprehension, by 
.the emissaries of the High Priest, during the progress of 



404 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

His trial, before the Council of the Jews, before Herod 
and before Pilate, and at the time of His crucifixion, as 
well as during the gloomy interval between His death 
and resurrection, those disciples evinced no courage, no 
magnanimity. They were scattered, as sheep when the 
shepherd is smitten — they fled from Him, when danger 
became imminent. Peter, the boldest of all, when chal- 
lenged as His disciple, repeatedly and with solemn 
asservations denied all knowledge of Him. One only, 
John, meekly stood by Him to the last. After He was 
crucified, moved by fear of the Jews, they sought safety 
together, in a room, all of whose accesses were carefully 
closed. Never were good men more disheartened, more 
unmanned than were these disciples. But, very soon 
after the resurrection of Christ, we find them, in the most 
public places about Jerusalem, fearlessly proclaiming them- 
selves the disciples of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, 
claiming for Him the dignity and authority of the long- 
promised Messiah and boldly denouncing the crime of 
His murder against the rulers in Israel. Threats moved 
them not; and they even rejoiced, when they were sub- 
jected to the scourge, " that they were counted worthy to 
suffer shame for the name of Jesus." This speedy change, 
in the character of the disciples, is a moral phenomenon, 
not to be accounted for without the influence of some 
very efficient cause. What is that cause? What, but the 
resurrection of Christ; whereby His claim to the Messiah- 
ship was incontrovertibly established, and broad, clear, 
strong light thrown upon the spiritual life and immortality 
of humanity? Imagining, as they had done, that the 
Messiah would be a temporal prince, having universal 
dominion in the earth, making Judea the head of all 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 405 

nations, and reigning on earth forever; and, having 
adopted, with full conviction, the opinion that Jesus was 
the Messiah, they were confounded and disheartened, when 
they saw Him in the power of His enemies, and, especially, 
when they witnessed His ignominious death upon the 
Cross. No wonder, then, that, while they pondered and 
when they conversed with one another on these things, 
they were sad. They had " trusted that it had been he 
which should have redeemed Israel," and exalted her to 
perpetual dominion over all the nations of the earth; but, 
they had seen Him " delivered to be condemned," at the 
tribunal of a subaltern officer of a foreign power, and had 
witnessed His crucifixion, His death and His burial. In 
His grave lay entombed all their patriotic hopes, all their 
personal expectations of aggrandizement, all their warm 
affections, for a kind, considerate and faithful Friend! 
How could they be otherwise than sad? But, when the 
resurrection brought back the loved friend of their society; 
when, instead of earthly honors, they saw, in the light of 
His demolished tomb, their high destiny to life-immortal, 
and glory, surpassing all earthly distinction, at the right 
hand of God, how naturally were their timid spirits roused 
to magnanimity, their sadness exchanged for fullness of 
joy! And, when, instead of seeing their Master head 
over the nations of the earth, they saw Him exalted to be 
the " Head of all principalities and powers, both in this 
world and in that which is to come," and when, instead of 
temporal deliverance to Israel and her exaltation to the 
headship of all nations, procured by His victories as 
a temporal conqueror, they saw in their Master the 
Redeemer of a ruined world, from a destiny of eternal 
woe, " to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that 



406 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens," how must their 
bosoms have swelled with rapture ! Their Master is the 
Messiah ! King of kings ! Lord of lords ! and of His king- 
dom there shall be no end! This He had ineffectually 
labored to teach them, during the days of His flesh — 
now, His resurrection throws the light of immortality upon 
that teaching, and renders it so plain that " he who runs 
may read." Hence, the tranquillity of soul, for which 
recent perturbation had been so speedily exchanged I 
Hence, their fullness of joy, instead of the sadness and 
despondency, with which their hearts were so lately 
oppressed! Hence, too, their undaunted courage, instead 
of the timidity, which, a short while before, scattered 
them from the side of their persecuted Friend and 
Master! We deem this wonderful change, in the state 
of mind which characterized the disciples of Christ, within 
a lapse of time so very brief, a most conclusive proof that 
they knew, beyond all question, that " the Lord was risen 
indeed!" 

3. The third evidence, of the resurrection of Christ, 
which we shall notice, is the power acquired by His disci- 
ples to perform miracles, in attestation of that fact. In 
this light is the matter regarded by the inspired author 
of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter iv, 33 : " With great 
power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of 
the Lord Jesus." It is true, that this is spoken more 
especially of that perpetual miracle — the conversion of 
sinners to God, by the preaching of a crucified and risen 
Christ, as the Saviour of all that believe on Him; but* 
it is not spoken of this exclusively of other miraculous 
works, as is evident from the tenth verse of this chapter: 
u Be it known unto vou all, and to all the people of Israel,, 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 407 

that, by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye cruci- 
fied, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him, doth 
this man stand before you whole." Previously to the 
death and resurrection of Christ, the apostles preached 
Jesus as the Messiah, King of Israel, promised in the Old 
Testament Scriptures; and wrought miracles, in proof that 
their teaching was according to the mind and will of God. 
But, after the occurrence of these events, they preached 
Jesus, especially as the crucified and risen Saviour of 
mankind — the High Priest and atoning sacrifice for man; 
who, having " died for our sins, rose again for our justi- 
fication." And, the miracles they performed were in 
attestation of the truth of their preaching. In the name 
of their crucified and risen Master, they cast out Devils, 
enabled the " lame to leap as a hart," healed the sick and 
raised to life the dead, without any of those means and 
appliances which human science employs for such opera- 
tions as lie within the reach of human skill. The power 
to perform miracles, that is, to act independently of physi- 
cal laws, belongs only to God; and, it were monstrous 
impiety and egregious absurdity to suppose that He would 
attest a falsehood or a fable, by the exertion of such 
power. Hence, the miracles wrought in the name of Jesus, 
as risen from the dead, were irrefragable proofs of His 
resurrection. 

We suppose the foregoing exhibition, of the evidences 
of Christ's resurrection, to be amply sufficient to satisfy 
every one who receives the New Testament Scriptures as 
of Divine inspiration, that "the Lord is risen indeed." 
Of His resurrection, we have no physical theory. It lies 
wholly without the range of natural law. But, is it, there- 
fore, the less credible ? Did not He, to whose agency the 



408 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

resurrection of Christ is attributed, produce nature, and 
arrange the laws by which that nature is governed? And, 
can He not, whenever His wisdom and goodness prompt 
to a suspenson of those laws, as easily suspend as He 
arranged them? And, if not, "why should it be thought 
incredible that He should raise the dead?" or, in any 
other matter, act independently of the order, which He 
established for general purposes, when a special occasion, 
of sufficient importance to warrant His doing so, solicits 
His interference? 

That Christ was raised from the dead in the same body 
in which He suffered on the Cross, is clearly and emphati- 
cally represented to have been the case, by the whole 
history of the resurrection. But, we have sufficient reason 
for believing that that body, though the same, was not in 
the same state that it was before His crucifixion, or that 
its state was afterwards changed, before He ascended to 
heaven. An apostle tells us that Christ " shall change 
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His 
glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is 
able to subdue all things unto Himself." — Philip, hi, 21. 
And, in another place, the same apostle informs us, that 
in the general resurrection, the body of the saint shall be 
" raised a spiritual body." — 1 Cor. xv, 44. The body of 
Christ, then, in His glorified state, is a spiritual body. I£ 
however, the body of Christ was not raised from the dead 
a spiritual body, but was re-animated in the same state in 
which it was crucified, there will be no difficulty in the 
case; for, in the interval between His resurrection and 
His being received up into glory, His body may have 
experienced that instantaneous change which St. Paul 
assures us the bodies of the saints, " who are alive and 



RESURRECTION OP CHRIST. 409 

remain at His coming," to judge the world, will undergo. 
Perhaps this wonderful change was wrought upon His 
body, while He stood upon Mount Olivet, awaiting His 
cloud-chariot and angelic convoy to convey Him up, in 
glorious triumph, to that heaven, whence, with amazing con- 
descension, He had " descended first into the lowest parts 
of the earth." Certain it is, that, if the bodies of the 
saints are to be " fashioned like unto His glorious body," 
and, if their bodies are to be "raised spiritual bodies," in 
the general resurrection, either in His resurrection or sub- 
sequently, His body was changed from a natural body to a 
spiritual body. We, upon the whole, incline to the opinion 
that this change took place subsequently to the resurrec- 
tion and previously to the ascension into heaven : for, we 
are assured that the apostles "ate and drank with Him 
after He was risen from the dead;" and, He said to them, 
when they doubted the evidence of their sight, " Handle 
me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye 
see me have." That the change must have taken place 
before the ascension into heaven, is rendered indubitable, 
from the fact that " flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God." May we not humbly suppose that 
there was a fitness, if not a necessity in this change passing 
upon the body of Christ, while He was, in the ordinary 
sense of the word, alive? He is to be "made in all things 
like unto His brethren." He had died and risen from the 
dead; as the far greater part of His brethren have done 
or will do — was it not proper, then, that His body should 
be changed while alive, as were the bodies of Enoch and 
Elijah, and as will be those of the saints, " who are alive 
and remain at His coming" to judge the world in righteous- 
ness? This circumstance would conform Him, in a matter 



410 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

of striking peculiarity, to many of His brethren, with- 
out in any important sense, establishing an incongruity 
between Him and the mass of His followers. But, whether 
the change of His body, from materiality to spirituality, 
took place in His resurrection or subsequently to it, 
it certainly did take place before "He passed into the 
heavens." 

Before the rationalist shall deny this, on the ground 
that it is impossible to change matter into spirit, let him 
inform us concerning the essential natures of these com- 
ponents of the universe. He knows much of the properties 
of each, as they exist in the present state of things ; but, 
does he know that these properties are essential to the 
existences to which they now appertain ? May it not be 
possible that matter should exist, not only without those 
properties which now belong to it, but even with properties 
exactly antagonistic to them ? And, if there be no proper 
impossibility in this, can He, who created both matter and 
spirit, have any difficulty in changing the former into the 
latter ? Who will venture to affirm that the essential 
nature of matter is not the same as that of spirit ; and, 
that all that would be necessary to change the former 
into the latter would be to remove those properties not 
essential to its existence but only so to the form of the 
existence in which we behold it ? We, at least, dare not 
so affirm ; because we do not know, cannot even conjecture 
the essential nature of either matter or spirit. We all 
know that, as they now exist, matter and spirit are of 
incongruous properties — that one of them cannot perform 
the part assigned to the other, in the economy of nature ; 
but, we do not know that, had the Creator of both so 
determined, they might not reciprocally have occupied 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 411 

each other's places in that economy. It certainly is 
humiliating to the pride of philosophy thus to point out 
the limits, within which it is restrained ; but, it were well 
if philosophy always understood its ne plus ultra — the 
world might then have been saved from many theories, 
gravely put forth, which might well have been elaborated 
in the disordered brain of the maniac ; but, which, 
guaranteed by the sign-manual of great intellect and 
profound learning, have exercised a commanding influence 
on the opinions and destiny of large portions of the human 
family. Great intellects are as much distinguished by 
knowing where to pause, where to confess incompetency, 
as by the success with which they explore the vast commons, 
which Infinite Wisdom has spread out for their investiga- 
tion. It is enough for us to know that the God of truth 
has informed us that natural, or material bodies may and 
shall be changed into spiritual bodies. It is enough, since 
He, who gives us the information, is to operate the change, 
by " the working, whereby He is able to subdue all things 
to Himself." 

We next invite attention to the purposes of Christ's 
resurrection from the dead ; and, 

1. His own personal interest in life, would, in the 
absence of all others, have been a purpose of sufficient 
importance to call into exertion the power He claimed to 
" take again the life He had laid down." Life, to all who 
live, is of such unspeakable value, that no amount of 
poverty, oppression or suffering, whether of body or mind, 
can induce one, in many millions, to relinquish it, one 
moment sooner than he must. Suppose, then, and the 
supposition is according to the fact, in the instance of 
Christ, that life may be resumed with added enjoyments 



412 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

and the absence of " all the ills that flesh is heir to" on 
earth, how ineffably desirable would be a return of life ! 
How incalculably important a purpose would be accom- 
plished by His resurrection, if this result alone was secured 
by it ! This return to life was eminently due to Christ ; 
as He had laid down His life for the salvation of mankind. 
Had He, innocent, holy and righteous before God, remained 
under the power of death, to which He had submitted for 
the redemption of a guilty world, His continuance would 
have been a heinous injustice ; and man would have been 
redeemed at the expense of ruin to his benevolent 
Redeemer. But, " it was not possible that He should be 
holden" perpetually in the captivity of death. When the 
great work of redeeming man was accomplished, He arose, 
the Spoiler of His previously invincible captor — a glo- 
rious conqueror of him, who had triumphed over a long 
succession of human generations. He arose to immortality, 
to glory transcendent, to happiness that nothing could 
ever interrupt, and which should know no period. 

2. His resurrection, more than anything else, attested 
His Messiahship. u He was declared to be the Son of 
God," (another well-known appellative of the Messiah,) 
" with power, by His resurrection from the dead." The 
wisdom, purity and perfect righteousness of His doctrines 
and His precepts had rendered it probable that He was 
the long-hoped-for Messiah — His many, various, benevo- 
lent and stupendous miracles had strongly challenged the 
universal consent of the world to the justness of His 
claims as the Messiah. And, now, His resurrection from 
the dead renders unbelief impossible, in regard to the 
matter, in the case of all who admit that fact. Let us 
suppose that some eminently wise and good man, of our 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 413 

own day, proclaiming himself a messenger from God, for 
some purpose important to ourselves ; and, that, to accredit 
himself to us in that character, besides healing the sick 
with a touch, opening the eyes of those born blind with 
clay and spittle, and raising the dead to life with a word, 
he should announce to us that he should die by the hand 
of the public executioner, but, that, when he had been 
dead three days, he would rise from the dead; and, 
suppose that we had stood by him when he died, and had 
seen unmistakable evidences that he was dead ; and, 
suppose, further, that, at the time designated by him, he 
should return to life, and come in and go out among us 
forty days, evincing all the phenomena of life — could we 
entertain a doubt that he was the messenger of God he 
had claimed to be ? Human incredulity could not go 
this length. Unbelief must take refuge in denying the 
well-proved fact of the resurrection of Christ — it cannot 
admit this fact, and yet reject His claims to the 
Messiahship. 

3. The success and spread of the Gospel were the 
result chiefly of the resurrection of Christ. This is 
distinctly affirmed in a passage in the Acts already 
quoted. In the conversion of multitudes from sin to 
God, the apostles gave strong testimony to the resurrec- 
tion of Christ ; inasmuch as the preaching of that 
resurrection was mainly instrumental in producing that 
conversion. And, what can be imagined so well calculated 
to win souls to God as an exhibition of the " kindness 
and love of God" through Jesus Christ ? What sinner, 
however hardened in crime, can believe that " God com- 
mendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us" — that "God so loved the 



414 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever 
believe th in Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life" — that having expiated our sins by His death, Christ 
arose from the dead. Who, we say, can believe all this, 
without feeling heart-rending penitence for sins committed 
against so great and good a being as God — firm trust and 
confidence in His willingness and His ability to save those 
who penitently turn to Him from their sins — devoted love 
to Him, that hath first and so wonderfully loved us, even 
in our rebellion against Him, and gratitude, warm, soul- 
stirring gratitude, prompting to all obedience ? And, this 
is converson from sin to God ! And, every instance of 
such a conversion widens the circle of the Gospel's diffusion, 
and contributes to the establishment of the kingdom of 
God among men. The special efficiency of the resurrec- 
tion of Christ, in producing the conversion in question, 
results from the fact that that resurrection was the 
completion of man's redemption, and from the ground of 
confidence, in His ability " to save to the uttermost all 
who come unto God by Him," which this Godlike exertion 
of power affords. Can we doubt that He, who broke away 
from the captivity of the tomb, can "open the prison-doors 
to them that are bound," and can break off from us the 
bondage of corruption, whether derived from our corrupt 
origin or fixed upon us by our own sinful indulgence ? In 
the death of Christ, we behold God's hatred of sin, and a 
reason presented to the Divine Majesty, why He may, 
without impugning His own justice, extend pardon and 
favor to sinners — or why we should hate sin, be sorry for 
it and cast it from us, with loathing, abhorrence and dread, 
.and why we should love God, be grateful to Him and 
glorify Him by good works. And, in the resurrection of 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 415 

Christ, we see an ample foundation for the most implicit 
confidence in the sufficiency of the atonement, God's 
acceptance of it and Christ's ability to save us, though 
" the chief of sinners." Hence, the preaching of Christ, 
crucified and risen — dying for our sins and rising again 
for our justification — was the means chiefly relied on by 
the apostles for the success of their ministry. And, this 
preaching will, to the end of time, be found not only the 
chief, but, indeed, the only successful instrumentality in 
the conversion of souls, and in the consequent spread of 
the Gospel, and establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom 
in the earth. 

4. Christ arose from the dead, for the justification of 
those whom His death had redeemed. So far as the 
original transgression was concerned, this justification was 
absolute, unconditional and final. So that, "as by the 
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemna- 
tion, even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift 
came upon all men unto justification of lifer Hence, none 
are noiv condemned for the original transgression ; though 
Adam and all his posterity in him were involved, by that 
transgression, in condemnation. Christ expiated the guilt, 
and satisfied the judgment of condemnation that was upon 
us for that transgression. In regard to personal sins, 
justification is conditional, though equally proceeding 
from God in Christ as that in regard to the original trans- 
gression. A compliance with a condition infers no merit 
— no deserving of the benefit dependent on such com- 
pliance. Hence, though personal justification is strictly 
conditional, it is as entirely of free grace as if no condition 
were imposed in order to our obtaining it. Christ arose 
for our justification, in regard both to the original trans- 



416 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

gression, and to our own personal sins. The inquiry, how 
His resurrection conduces to this result ? is one of much 
interest ; and one upon which, so far as we know, far less 
attention has been bestowed by Christian teachers, than 
has been bestowed upon many biblical subjects of greatly 
inferior importance. It is our intention to go, at some 
length, into the investigation of this interesting matter ; 
and, 

(1.) We consider the resurrection of Christ as being in 
the nature of an acknowledgment of satisfaction, on the 
part of the Divine government, of its penal claims upon 
man for his sins. Christ died for sin — a ransom for the 
sinner. Had the ransom been inadequate to the claims 
to be met, we suppose the surety or substitute would not 
have been discharged \ and, therefore, as Christ was 
released from the custody of death, by the Almighty 
Claimant against man, we consider that release equivalent 
to a full discharge of the claims against man : so, that, 
the sinner may plead the resurrection of Christ in bar of 
the claims of the Divine law against him, on account 
of his sins ; and the plea will be admitted, and he will 
be justified in the sight of God. This plea, it should be 
observed, must, in order to its being available/ be pre- 
sented in the manner prescribed in the terms of the 
Contract or Covenant of redemption. A failure to present 
the plea, or its presentation otherwise than as directed, 
will cut off the claim of the individual, so failing, from the 
advantage resulting from a proper presentation of the 
plea. Hence, the threat of perdition, under the Gospel 
dispensation is almost exclusively predicated of such 
failure — "he that believeth not the Son, shall not see 
life" — "he that believeth not, shall be damned" — "if 



RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 417 

they escaped not, who turned away from Him who spake 
on earth, how shall we escape if we neglect so great 
salvation?" The resurrection of Christ, then, as an 
official acknowledgment of the satisfaction rendered by 
Him of the claims against man for sin, is the immediate 
instrument of the justification of the sinner in the sight 
of God. 

(2.) We have already intimated that justification, in 
regard to personal transgressions, is conditional The 
condition is that the plea be presented to God, that Christ 
has satisfactorily met the claims against the sinner. The 
evidence that He has done so, we have attempted to show, 
is His resurrection from the dead. And, we have said 
that this plea must be presented in the manner prescribed 
in the Contract or Covenant of redemption, in order to its 
being available. The manner of presenting this plea, 
prescribed in this Contract or Covenant, is as simple as it 
is rational — it is that the person presenting it have firm 
and exclusive confidence in the atonement and mediation 
of Christ for his justification. This is what is meant by 
u believing on Christ," "faith in Christ," Hence, justifica- 
tion is by faith alone. For, though repentance and prayer 
are required, it is not that they are conditions of justifica- 
tion, but that they prepare the sinner for performing the 
^condition that is required — that is, for believing on 
Christ. Now, nothing can so directly beget faith in the 
merits and mediation of Christ, as the fact of His resurrec- 
tion from the dead — that being, at once, the consummation 
and the strongest evidence of the finished redemption of 
man, and a striking manifestation of the absolute suf- 
ficiency of Christ to be the Saviour of all for whom He 
undertakes, and who will come to His terms. Faith being 

27 



418 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

necessary to justification, and the resurrection of Christ 
the main instrumentality in producing faith, He was, in 
this respect, " raised again for our justification." 

(3.) It is more than intimated, in the Scriptures of 
truth, that the sinner needs an Advocate or Intercessor in 
the presence of God. This office, we are assured, is filled 
by Jesus Christ. In order to His filling this office, it was 
indispensable that He should arise from the dead. And, 
who but He, " who bore our sins in His own body on the 
tree" — who "put away sin, by the sacrifice of Himself" 
— who "gave Himself a ransom for all," can be so well, 
if at all, qualified to advocate the sinner's cause, before 
the throne of Heaven ? But, as this subject will, here- 
after, claim our extended notice, we may not pursue it 
further in the present Discourse. Besides, we have, as 
we think, made it sufficiently evident that our justification, 
as sinners, in the sight of God, is, in several important 
respects, greatly dependent on the resurrection of Christ 

5. Finally, the resurrection of Christ is, at once, the 
cause and the assurance of the resurrection awaiting all 
who shall have died of the human race. This is as clearly 
affirmed in the Divine Oracles as any other matter 
whatever. Nay, so emphatic is St. Paul, in his affirma- 
tion of these positions, that he concludes decisively, that, 
"if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised." So 
intimately related are the resurrection of Christ and that 
of the human family, in his judgment, that they must 
stand or fall together. In the nature of man, Christ died, 
to expiate the guilt of all mankind — in that nature, He 
also rose from the dead, to restore the immortality, which 
man had forfeited by the sin, which Christ " put away by 
the sacrifice of Himself." His resurrection opened the 



RESURRECTION OP CHRIST. 419 

gates of death, not alone for His own escape, but for the 
escape also of all who participated in the nature in which 
He achieved that great enterprise ; and, the fact of His 
resurrection gave assurance, as well as privilege, of 
resurrection to all who were " bone of His bone, and flesh 
of His flesh." We shall cite a few of the scriptures 
which establish the truth of the positions we have here 
assumed. " Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become 
the first fruits of them that slept ; for since by man came 
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 
For, as in Adam, all die, even so, in Christ, shall all be 
made alive." — 1 Corinthians xv, 20-22. "If there be 
no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen. 
And, if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, 
and your faith is also vain : yea, and we are found false 
witnesses of God ; because we have testified of God that 
He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be the 
dead rise not. For, if the dead rise not, then is not 
Christ raised." — 1 Corinthians xv, 13-16. "Blessed be 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, 
according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again 
unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and unde- 
fined, and that fadeth not away." 1 Peter, i, 3, 4. 

We shall now close this Discourse by an interrupted 
quotation from the fourth part of Dr. Young's Night 
Thoughts, which clearly, and much more eloquently than 
we could, expresses our views on the resurrection of 
Christ— 

** Did He rise 1 
Hear, 0, ye nations 1 hear it, O, ye dead ! 
He rose ! He rose I He burst the bars of death. 



420 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

Oh, the burst gates ! crush'd sting ! deraolish'd throne ! 
Last gasp of vanquish'd death, shout earth and heaven, 
This sum of good to man ! Whose nature, then 
Took wing, and mounted with Him from the tomb \ 
Then I rose, then first, humanity, 
Triumphant passed the crystal ports of light, 
(Stupendous guest !) and seized eternal youth, 
Seized in our name ! E'er since 'tis blasphemous 
To call man mortal. 

Man all immortal ! hail ! 
Hail Heaven ! all-lavish of strange gifts to man ! 
Thine all the glory : man's the boundless bliss !" 



DISCOURSE XIII. 

THB ASCENSION OP CHRIST INTO HEAVEN, AND HIS INTERCESSION 

FOR MAN. 

Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the 
figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of 
God for us. — Heb. ix, 24. 

The resurrection of Christ was the subject of our medi- 
tations, in the last Discourse — in this our attention is 
invited to His ascension into heaven, and His intercession 
for man, before the Divine Majesty. In the very nature 
of the thing, there is a manifest impossibility that wo 
should know a jot more of these matters than has been 
revealed to us — the laws of nature having no operation 
in their production, and the principles governing them 
residing in the bosom of the Great Supreme, they are to- 
be understood only as they are developed in the facts by 
which they are manifested, or by direct revelation. The 
account we have of the ascension of Christ is very brief, 
and as simple as it is brief. There is no attempt at 
explanation of the phenomenon — a sparing detail of par- 
ticulars, and no pomp, display or rhetorical flourish of 
representation for the sake of effect 

This wonderful event is narrated in a style as simple as 
unpretending, and as dispassionate as if it had been one 
of the most common-place and unimportant events that 

421 



422 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

the narrator could hare had occasion to record. Every 
one must perceive that there is, in this manner of narrating 
a fact, a strong presumption of either entire sincerity in 
the narrator, or of the most consummate artifice — either 
that he believes what he says to be truth, or, that, aware 
that such a manner is indicative of truth, he has adopted 
it with a view to deceive. An adroit impostor might 
succeed in concealing such art, in the statement of a 
single incident; but, it is greatly improbable that he 
should be able, in a narrative of considerable length, and 
embracing a great variety of stirring events, to maintain 
a character of naivete throughout, as has been done in 
the Acts of the Apostles, and, indeed, in all the historical 
portions of the New Testament. We claim the benefit 
of the presumption, therefore, that the historian of the 
ascension of Christ was conscious of the entire truthfulness 
in his statement. 

To the account of the ascension of Christ into heaven, 
we are easily and naturally introduced by the historian, 
by a rapid, but exceedingly interesting glance at the 
events which had intervened between that event and the 
burial of Christ — the resurrection of Christ, His inter- 
course with His disciples, His instructions, admonitions 
and promises to them. We shall give this introduction 
and narrative of the ascension in the language of the 
evangelist himself: "He showed Himself alive (to the 
apostles) after His passion, by many infallible proofs — 
being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things 
pertaining to the kingdom of God. And, being assembled 
together with them, commanded them that they should not 
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the 
Father, which, suith He, ye have heard of me; for, John 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 423 

truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. When they, 
therefore, were come together, they asked of Him, saying: 
4 Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom 
to Israel?' And, He said unto them: 'It is not for you 
to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath 
put in His own power. But, ye shall receive power, after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be 
witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, 
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the 
eartb-' And, when He had spoken these things, while 
they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him 
out of their sight. And, while they looked steadfastly 
toward heaven, as He went up, behold two men stood by 
them in white apparel, which also said : ' Ye men of Gali- 
lee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same 
JesuSj which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into 
heaven.' " — Acts i, 3-11. This narrative of events and 
of conversations, between Jesus Christ, after His death, 
and His apostles, who knew Him intimately, is true; or, 
those who furnished the materials for it were guilty of 
deliberate, conscious and most profane falsehood. How 
can the latter supposition be reconciled with either the 
circumstances or the moral character of the apostles, from 
whom these materials were certainly derived? What 
motive could have influenced any man, in the circum- 
stances in which the apostles were placed, to fabricate such 
falsehoods? Not only could they hope for no advantage 
from them, but, from the fate of their late Master, they 
must have known that infamy, suffering and death would 
be incurred by them. All these have been often bravely 



424 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION Of CHRIST. 

encountered, and endured with unblenching fortitude, in 
the advancement and maintenance of opinions which were 
grossly erroneous ; but, is there on record a single instance 
where men have encountered certain hardship and danger, 
with no reasonable prospect of compensating advantage, 
in attestation of simulated? fads, known to be sueh by 
those who attested them? We think not; and, we, conse- 
quently, conclude that the apostles and St. Luke believed 
the facts, narrated by the latter, on the authority of the 
former, to have been facts of actual occurrence. The 
miraculous character of these facts does not remove the 
facts themselves beyond the competency of human testi- 
mony. The resurrection of a dead man, or the ascension 
of the risen man, as mere facte) would lie as directly within 
the range of human knowledge and human testimony, as 
would the return of an absent man, or his setting out on 
a fresh journey. The character of the fact is not a matter 
of testimony, but a judgment formed of the fact by those 
who reason upon it. Hence, a miraculous fact can be as 
fully attested as any other fact;, though there may be 
difficulty in determining the character of the fact, mm* 
whether it be or be not a miraculous fact. The resurrec- 
tion and ascension of Christ were facte, about which the 
apostles could not be in error. They had seen Him DEAD r 
beyond all question — they, afterwards, were associated 
with Him alive for forty days - — they conversed, ate and 
drank with Him — they, then, saw Him ascend from the 
midst of them towards heaven. Where, we ask, could 
there be the possibility of mistake ?- 

We shall notice a few of the circumstances mentioned 
in this narrative and introduction; and r 

1. In the interviews, between the risen Christ and His 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 425 

apostles, the engrossing subject of His communications 
to them was the kingdom He was to establish in the 
world — He spake unto them "of the things pertaining to 
the kingdom of God;" doubtless endeavoring to spiritualize 
their conception of that kingdom, as well as laying before 
them an outline of its constitution, institutions, responsi- 
bilities and privileges. Still, they clung to the grossness 
of their Jewish prejudices on this subject: for, they ask 
Him: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the 
kingdom to Israel ?" He, somewhat sternly, repulses 
their curiosity, by saying to them: "It is not for you to 
know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put" 
(reserved?) "in His own power," as if He had said: "This 
is among the f secret things which belong to God/ and 
which will baffle the ingenuity of human inquiry, till His 
purpose shall be developed in the event." Connected with 
this repulse, was, however, a consoling assurance that, for 
all necessary knowledge upon that, and, indeed, upon all 
other subjects, connected with their relation to Him and 
His cause, they should "receive power, after that the 
Holy Ghost was come upon them : " so that they should 
be competent to "be witnesses unto Him, both in Jeru- 
salem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
uttermost parts of the earth." In view of this, He had 
previously commanded them not to " depart from Jeru- 
salem, but wait for the promise of the Father" — that 
they should "be baptized with the Holy Ghost;" and 
promised them that they should receive this baptism "not 
many days" subsequently to His announcing the promise. 
We hear of no cavil on the part of any of the apostles; 
and, therefore, we conclude that, though they had not been 
entirely freed from their Jewish prejudices, in regard to 



426 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

the Messiah, they had discarded the overweening self- 
confidence, which had once prompted Peter, at least, to 
question the truth of his Master's announcements, and to 
undertake His correction. 

2. While the attention of the apostles was fixed 
upon their Master, by the important instruction He was 
imparting to them, " He was taken up, and a cloud 
received Him out of their sight." The special character 
of the cloud, which enveloped Him from their view, is not 
indicated ; but, is it not probable that it was similar to 
that cloud into which Moses and Elias entered, when they 
ascended from the mount of Transfiguration, after their 
interview with Jesus — "a bright cloud?" And, may 
we not, without too great presumption, suppose that that 
bright cloud was a galaxy of resplendent angels, who 
descended to earth to convoy their Supreme Lord in 
glorious triumph, back to that heaven and throne, which 
He had forsaken, for the unutterably benevolent purpose 
of redeeming rebellious man from " under the curse of the 
law." Never, certainly, was triumph so well deserved ! 
Never was obtained so glorious a victory ! Never was 
conflict so terrible waged ! Never was enterprise so 
benevolent and so disinterested undertaken ! He under- 
took the redemption of rebels against His authority, and 
enemies against his nature and character, from the just 
consequences of their horrible delinquency, at the certain 
sacrifice of His own life, under the enormous weight of 
their sins — and, He achieved His enterprise ; crushing 
Death by His own fall, and leading captivity captive, 
when, in His resurrection, He mounted the car of triumph. 
In His train, we behold the myriads of human beings 
whom he delivered from their gloomy prison-house ; and, 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 427 

dragged at His chariot wheels, we see their ruthless captors, 
u Death, and him that had the power of death, that is the 
Devil," in hopeless captivity, awaiting a doom of utter 
perdition. The prophetic Psalmist, in the twenty-fourth 
Psalm, realized the triumphal ascension of the victorious 
Messiah. After answering the question : " Who shall 
ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in 
His holy place ? " so far as accountable man is concerned, 
he passes, by a bold transition, to the " Forerunner " of 
the saints, demanding entrance into this " high and holy 
place." His entrance is manifestly demanded on the 
ground of double right — first, because He is Jehovah, 
mighty in battle — victorious in a terrible conflict ; and, 
secondly, because He is Jehovah of Hosts — the true and 
eternal God. His attendants demand for Him a triumphal 
admission into His Capitol : " Lift up your heads, ye 
gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors ; and the 
King of glory shall come in." The response, from the 
guardians of the gates, is : " Who is this King of glory ? " 
and, the reply from His suite : " The LORD, Strong 
and Mighty — the LORD mighty in battle." The gate 
is not opened, and the demand is repeated: "Lift up 
your heads, 0, ye gates, even lift them up ye everlasting 
doors ; and the King of glory shall come in." Again the 
question is responded : " Who is the King of glory ? " and 
the reply now is : " The LORD of Hosts, He is the King 
of glory." Here the Psalmist breaks off; but, we learn 
from other portions of the sacred Scripture, that the 
Mighty Conqueror, the God Incarnate, on whose behalf 
the demand for admittance was so confidently made, did 
enter into the heavens, and " sat down at the right hand 
of the Majesty on high " — the seat of highest honor. 



428 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

3. The narrative goes on to inform us, that, "while 
they" (the apostles,) "looked steadfastly toward heaven, 
as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white 
apparel ; which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand 
ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is 
taken up from 3'ou into heaven," etc. These two men, 
in white apparel, were probably holy angels — perhaps 
eminent saints, who rose, with their Divine Master, from 
the dead — they certainly were divine messengers, sent 
to inform the apostles of the true import of the wonderful 
phenomenon which they were so eagerly contemplating, 
and to comfort them on the departure of their Master 
from among them, by the assurance that he would certainly 
return to them in due time. What we design to notice, 
is the information given to the apostles, by the celestial 
messengers, that "Jesus was taken up into heaven." 
This, were this all the evidence allowed us on the subject, 
would, in our judgment, be abundantly sufficient to settle 
the point that heaven is a place. Indeed, we cannot 
conceive of any limited existence, without assigning to 
such existence a locality. Nay, we cannot conceive of the 
existence of Deity Himself, without associating with such 
conception the related idea of place or space, appropriate 
to the character of his existence. He is infinite ; and we, 
therefore, assign to Him infinite space. Where the place 
denominated heaven, and to which Jesus was taken up, is 
situated, it is not in the power of man to know. A beau- 
tiful, and, we should say, not an improbable conjecture is, 
that it exists in the center of the created universe. Though 
God exists everywhere, and makes His influence to be felt 
in all parts of creation, the Scriptures everywhere inculcate 
the idea that in heaven He manifests Himself in a manner 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 429 

and with a clearness of revelation peculiar to that glorious 
place. There He is seen with open face — the inhabitants 
dwell in His presence — walk in His light — fall before 
His face in worship — hear His voice from His throne. 
His glory, with that of the Lamb, supersede the sun, and 
moon, and stars, and all artificial illumination, by being 
"the light of the New Jerusalem." Hither congregate the 
good from every nation of earth — may we not add, from 
every world in the universe, and of every class and grade 
of intelligent and moral beings whom God has called into 
existence ? To this high and holy place, the Messiah, His 
work of mercy on earth being accomplished, His world- 
redeeming victory achieved, ascended, in glorious triumph, 
and " sat down with the Father in His throne." Behold, 
then, the Babe of Bethlehem, the " Man of sorrows," the 
"Despised and rejected of men," the crucified Nazarene, 
high-seated in the heavens! — "'Head overall principalities 
and powers!" "All things put under Him" — all, save 
the Great Supreme Himself! Hear the mandate from the 
eternal throne: "Let all the angels of God worship Him!" 
And, see the towering majesty of Michael, prince of the 
celestial hosts, bowing before His unrivaled dignity! 
while seraphim and cherubim burn and shine, with 
intense ardor and brilliancy, in their devotion to Him! 
And, is humanity thus exalted? — thus glorified? How 
wonderful the condescension of the Divinity, in being 
incarnated in humanity, for the redemption of a sin-ruined 
world! How inconceivably magnificent the honors con- 
ferred upon the humanity in which that incarnation took 
place! The mind reels with wonder in contemplating 
them ! 

Amid the pomp, the splendor and the unrivaled digniti 



430 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

to which the Messiah has been so deservedly exalted, will 
He not forget the humble race to which His humanity 
belongs? Surrounded by prostrate angels and adoring 
seraphim and cherubim, lauded by the swelling anthems 
of celestial choristers, will He hear, will He regard the 
faint whisper of human thanksgiving, or the feeble wail 
of human sorrow? Ah! can we hope that He will remem- 
ber those whom He left in this low, dim, distant vale of 
earth? Yes: He will — He does remember, with deep 
sympathy, with heart-warm kindness, the meanest and 
most insignificant of all those of whose nature He took a 
part — for whom "He poured out His soul unto death" — 
whom, by His own resurrection from the dead, He released 
from the dominion of death, and whose nature He carried 
in triumph into the seat supreme in the heavens! He 
remembers them, not with fruitless, inoperative kindness; 
but, with a kindness ever active, appropriate to their 
necessities, and so efficient that nothing but their own 
folly and perverseness can ever defeat its entire success. 
" He hath gone into heaven for us ! " He hath invested 
the entire value of His succssful enterprise on earth, and 
pledged the whole dignity of His transcendent exaltation 
in heaven, for the benefit of man. " He ever liveth, to 
make intercession for us." To this intercession our atten- 
tion is now directed; and we notice, 

1. His qualifications for this responsible office. These 
are many, and of the highest possible order. 

(1.) The first of these, we shall mention, is His rela- 
tion to the Majesty of heaven, to whom the intercession 
in behalf of man is to be addressed. He is the 
"Only-begotten," the "Well-beloved Son" of that Divine 
Personage — the "Express Image of His Person" — 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 431 

reflecting, brightly and accurately, His infinite excellencies 
of character — He is the recognized partner of His throne, 
sharing, equally with Him, in the authority of universal 
government — He is embosomed in His Father's affec- 
tion ; and has, at all times, unobstructed access to His 
presence and counsels. No measure of Divine adminis- 
tration can, therefore, be deliberated on, without His 
perfect knowledge of its origin and whole bearing. 
Whatever question, of interest to man, may arise in the 
Cabinet of heaven, is fully known to the Prince Messiah. 
And, His relation to the Supreme authority secures Him 
a prompt and favorable audience on the subject. This, all 
must perceive, is a qualification, for the office of Inter- 
cessor, of vast importance. 

(2.) His relation to man, in whose behalf He inter- 
cedes, entitles Him to a considerate and indulgent hearing 
in His intercessions — He is bone of man's bone — flesh 
of man's flesh — partaker of a common nature with man 
— his brother, after the flesh. What more natural, more 
proper, more becoming than that He should seek the wel- 
fare of His own people? — that He should sympathize in 
the sorrows of His kindred? — that He should plead the 
cause of His brother, when that brother is in distress or 
danger? Human hearts, though gross and dull in their 
sympathies, warmly respond to the propriety of such 
kindred feeling, and such efforts in behalf of kindred. 
The Incarnate One, then, would, before the dullness and 
selfishness, even, of a human tribunal, have pleaded the 
cause of man with the greater success, as being the 
brother of the race: — how much more before Him, who 
strung the human bosom with the cords of kindred sym- 
pathy, to be ligatures that should hold society in union. 



432 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

(3.) His personal and official dignity qualifies Him to 
intercede for man, with a success proportioned to that 
dignity. Eminent personal worth invests its subjects, in 
their intercourse with all who contemplate it, with great 
force of influence : so, that, it is not a little difficult to 
refuse to those who exhibit it, anything which they may 
either demand as a right or request as a favor. And, 
never was there equal personal worth, in any one wearing 
the human form, to that which characterized the Messiah. 
In Him, were blended, in absolute perfection, all the 
moral virtues, under the direction of a wisdom which 
never erred. This was the fact while He was upon earth, 
the subject of human infirmities and beset by the tempta- 
tions which are common to the human race; and, can we 
doubt that such is the fact with Him, now that all these 
infirmities have been laid aside, with His discarded mor- 
tality, and that He is enthroned in the midst of a society, 
every member of which is pure and upright, and where 
temptation can find no place? He is still the Great 
Exemplar of all who would "walk worthy of God, unto 
all pleasing" — the model of moral excellence, upon which 
all must form themselves, if they would " seek for glory, 
and honor, and immortality," in the highest of all — that 
is, in moral distinction. What wonder, this being so, that 
His intercession is of commanding influence! Besides 
the dignity of personal worth, He has such official dignity 
as gives immense weight to His intercession for man. He 
is no stipending advocate — no dependent on public favor, 
for honor or power. High-raised above all official compe- 
tition, and above all dependence on those for whom He 
appears, or on their patrons and favorers, He is not only 
disinterested in His advocacy, but .brings to it, moreover 



o 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OP CHRIST. 43c 

the full prestige of His incomparable Greatness. This 
combined dignity, of personal worth and the highest office, 
confers on Him such a weight of influence as must render 
His intercession availing. 

(4.) He is not only, as we have already said, not a 
stipendiary advocate, nor merely a volunteer, in pleading 
the cause of man ; but, He has also entitled Himself to 
the right of appearing on man's behalf, by the payment 
of a " price all price beyond." To qualify Himself for, 
and entitle Himself to the exercise of this office, He 
assumed the entire amount in which man stood indebted 
in the account of Eternal Justice, and discharged the 
obligation to the last item. He has a right;, then, on the 
score of equal justice, to shield man from the law-claims 
that may be urged against him ; and to exhibit the ample 
satisfaction which He Himself has rendered to those claims, 
in bar of their enforcement upon man. How beautifully, 
poetically and justly has the sweet Psalmist of our Israel 
expressed all this in a few graphic lines I 

" He ever lives above, 
For me to intercede ; 
His all-redeeming love, 

His precious blood, to plead ; 
His blood atoned for all our race, 
And sprinkles now the throne of grace. 

Five bleeding wounds He bears, 

Received on Calvary ; 
They pour effectual prayers, 
They strongly speak for me ; 
1 Forgive Him, O forgive,' they cry, 
l Nor let that ransom'd sinner die !' 

The Father hears Him pray, 

His dear Anointed One : 
He cannot turn away 

The presence of His Soa.' T 



434 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

His atoning sacrifice is a prevalent reason, with God, 
for extending the mercy solicited for man, by his benevo- 
lent Advocate. Without that atonement, no plea would 
have been admissible. With it, no mercy, consistent with 
the accountable nature of man, and with the integrity of 
the Divine government, is too great to be conferred on 
man, at the instance of his propitiatory Intercessor. " He 
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for 
us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all 
things ?" Shall the greater be given, and the less with- 
holden — especially, when the less is included in or 
implicated with the greater ? Surely, such an absurdity 
could have no place in the proceedings of infinite Wisdom 
and munificence ! And, yet, upon this very absurdity, 
unbelief often founders as fatally, as if it were the deep- 
seated rock of truth itself ! How often is it the case, that 
awakened sinners, who believe that Christ died for trans- 
gressors of the law generally, conclude that, because they 
have very greatly sinned, God will not have mercy on 
them, and pardon their sins ! Oh, let them remember 
that it is as sinners they are interested in the atonement 
and advocacy of Christ ; and, let them, therefore, though 
assured that they are "the chief of sinners," venture, with 
humble confidence, to claim the mercy and pardon, which 
they so keenly feel to be necessary to them ! 

(5.) The omniscience of Christ is an important qualifi- 
cation for His office of Intercessor for man. Frequently 
iit is the case that man himself is so bewildered and per- 
plexed that he knows not what mercy he needs : so, that> 
if his own unpatronized supplications were current with 
God, he might fail to obtain, because he would fail to ask 
for what he needed. But, our Advocate knows all that is 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 435 

in us — that is acting upon us — that is necessary to us ; 
and can, therefore, precisely adapt His petitions to our 
wants. He knows all our weaknesses, all our wayward 
tendencies, all the temptations that assail us, all our 
defectiveness in piety — in short, all that concerns us He 
knows ; and, he equally knows how to match our necessi- 
ties with countervailing mercies. How important this 
qualification, in an Intercessor for ignorant and often self- 
deluding man ! Nothing could compensate for its being 
wanting in Him who sustains that relation. But, it is not 
wanting in Him. As God, He is all-knowing. The 
darkness of moonless, starless midnight no more conceals 
us from His view, than the clear, bright beams of cloudless 
noon. Our thoughts and purposes are as intimately known 
to Him, in their earliest inception in the mind, as they 
are in the broadest and most perfect development. The 
enemies who plot against us, may have the subtlety and 
the deceitfulness of the most practiced diplomatist, even 
Satan himself ; but, they cannot weave a snare of a tissue 
so involved, but that His penetration can instantly detect 
its whole contrivance, and His skill disentangle us from 
its meshes. " He knows how to deliver the godly out of 
temptation.' ' 

(6.) His participation in our nature, our infirmities and 
our temptations eminently qualifies Him to be our Advo- 
cate — not so much because He knows, from His own 
experience, in what manner we are tried, as because He 
can sympathise with us in our trials. Thus was the matter 
viewed by St. Paul. Heb. iv, 15 : "We have not a High 
Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities ; but, was, in all points, tempted like as we are, 
yet without sin." Isaiah, speaking of this sympathy, on 



4S6 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

the part of our benevolent Intercessor, says : " In all their 
afflictions, He was afflicted." — Chap, lxiii, &. Nothing 
could so strongly dispose a benevolent person to urgent 
intervention in behalf of one who was in trouble of any 
kind, as to have been in similar trouble, and to feel the 
sympathy kindled by the recollection of having had such 
experience. Of whom may be expected the most ardent 
and operative sympathy, by the drenched and shivering 
sufferer by shipwreck, but of him who has himself strug- 
gled in the mighty waters, and been cast alone and 
helpless upon some rock-bound coast or some dreary 
island ? Rescued by human kindness or by some other 
providential intervention, he will, if his heart be in the 
right place, be always ready to feel for and to succor, to 
the utmost of his power, all whom he shall see involved in 
like distress. Go to the chamber where agony gives birth 
to life and joy. Whom will you there find, shedding the 
cordial of earnest sympathy upon the fainting sufferer, and 
tasking all their skill, their activity and their powers of 
endurance to sustain, comfort and succor, but those who 
have passed through the same conflict ? Once more : of 
whom may the famishing wanderer most confidently ask 
sympathy and bread, but of those conversant with the 
straits of extreme poverty and the gnawings of life-con- 
suming hunger? Such, unless recent prosperity, as is 
too often the case, have encrusted their hearts with intense 
selfishness and pride, are prompt to hear the claim of 
pressing want, and to yield to it a moiety of even the last 
crust. In a word, the experience of calamity is often the 
best preparative for sympathy, the strongest incitement, 
after pure benevolence, to deeds of kindness to those who 
suffer like evils with those involved in that experience. 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 437 

And, therefore, the experience of human infirmities, suf- 
ferings and temptations, by Jesus Christ, is justly viewed, 
by the apostle, as important, in His qualification as 
Intercessor for man. 

(7.) Finally, the advocacy of man's cause shall never, 
by death or otherwise, pass out of the hands of Jesus 
Christ, so long as the necessity for it shall be continued ; 
for, " He ever liveth to make intercession for us." Who 
does not perceive that any interest, homogeneous in its 
character, and perpetual in its continuance, must be 
greatly promoted by an administration equally homo- 
geneous and perpetual ? And, the advantage must be 
still the greater if the administration can be forever con- 
tinued in the same hands : provided the administrator 
of the trust be distinguished both for ability and fidelity. 
Rotation in office can never be desirable, except on the 
supposition of incompetence or of infidelity to the responsi- 
bilities of the office in question. As, therefore, we have 
seen that, in every view, Jesus Christ is well fitted to be 
the Advocate of man, before the Eternal Majesty, it is a 
circumstance of the highest importance to man that " He 
ever liveth ;" and that His tenure, of the office of our 
Intercessor, is equally ever-during as the occasion for His 
advocacy. Could we suppose a time, before the con- 
summation of all things, when the Messiah would vacate 
His Mediatorial throne, we should look upon that era of 
human existence as covered with the pall of despair. Of 
that era, it would be true, as it will be with regard to the 
eternity of the wicked after the judgment, " No patron ! 
Intercessor none ! Now past the sweet, the element, 
mediatorial hour ! Inexorable all ! " But, blessed be 
God ! that day of darkness and gloom shall never shut 



438 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHBISI. 

down upon our guilt-stained world, while the race of man 
is continued in it in a probationary state. While such 
shall be the case, He will still " appear in the presence of 
God for us" — will "live to make intercession for us." 

We shall next endeavor to ascertain for whom it is that 
the ascended Messiah " ever liveth to make intercession," 
before the presence of God. And, we observe that His 
intercession is for the ivhole human race. He died for the 
human race as a ivhole. No one doctrine is more clearly 
or frequently taught, in the word of truth, than this. So 
numerous, so emphatic and so guarded are the authorities 
for this affirmation, that we scarcely deem it necessary to 
cite even one. Every reader of the Bible must recur at 
once to what is so prominent in Scripture-teaching. We, 
however, adduce a few: — "He gave Himself a ransom 
for all." "As, by the offense of one, judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation, even so, by the righteous- 
ness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto 
justification of life." " God sent not His Son into the 
world to condemn the world, but that the world, through 
Him, might be saved." The resurrection of Christ took 
hold on the human race as a whole, and rescued it from 
the bondage of death. " As, in Adam, all die, even so, in 
Christ, shall all be made alive." " The hour is coming, 
in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His 
voice, and shall come forth — they that have done good 
unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done 
evil unto the resurrection of damnation." The ministers 
of the Gospel are commanded to preach glad tidings — 
the message of salvation, to the whole human race. " Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every 
creature." In conformity to this charge, the primitive 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 439 

preachers did offer salvation equally to all men, whether 
Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, savage or civilized. The 
tenor of their preaching is seen in an announcement of 
St. Paul to a mixed audience : " Be it known unto you, 
therefore, men and brethren, that, through this man" 
(Christ,) " is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." 
This would have been shameless insincerity, in the apostle, 
had he believed that God, for the glory of His justice, had, 
from all eternity, foreordained any man to eternal death ; 
inasmuch as he could not know that there were none of 
that hell-doomed class in his congregation. As, then, 
Christ died for all mankind, secured the resurrection of all, 
and commanded that the message of salvation should be 
proclaimed to all, we feel fully warranted in affirming that 
His intercession is for all men. 

It is for sinners, as such. St. John, 1 Epis. ii, 1, 2, 
says : " If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And, He is the pro- 
pitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for 
the sins of the whole world." He, then, pleads for sinners, 
as sinners. And, how well calculated is this fact, if the 
sinner would but consider it, to excite contrition in his 
heart ! Whilst thou, 0, careless one ! art regardless of 
thine eternal well-being — whilst thou mergest all concern 
for thy best interest in the hurry of business or in the 
tumult of pleasure — or, whilst thou dozest away thy pre- 
cious time, in thoughtless inconsideration, He, who died for 
thee, who rose again, that thou mightest attain to eternal 
life, watches over thine interests, with sleepless vigilance, 
and importunes the Divine administration for such mercy 
to thee, and such blessings upon thee, as are appropriate 
to thy necessities, and without which thou wouldst soon 



440 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

awake, to find thyself utterly and forever undone. AmL, 
you, 0, ye daringly wicked, ye flagrant rebels against 
Divine authority ! ye, " who set your mouth against the 
heavens;" who say, "What is the Almighty, that we 
should serve Him ?" who rush " upon the thick bosses 
of His buckler," and sin against God with a high hand— 
who laugh to scorn the invitations of the Gospel, and pour 
contempt upon the overtures of salvation — you would, 
long ere this, have been cut down " in your pride and 
stoutness of heart," but that the Great Mediator " ever 
liveth to make intercession " for you, before the throne, 
against which you are in such open and malignant 
rebellion. 

He intercedes for the penitent sinner — for him whose 
heart is broken and whose spirit is contrite, for having 
sinned against the authority of God, and against His 
mercy in Jesus Christ — who trembles at the word of 
God ; as realizing the justice of its denunciations, the 
purity of its precepts and his own inability, unaided, to 
comply with them — who is "feeling after God, if haply 
he might find Him," and the import of whose oft-recurring 
ejaculation is : " 0, that I knew where I might find Him 
— that I might come even to His seat ! I would order 
my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 
Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, 
but I cannot perceive Him : on the left-hand, where He 
doth work, but I cannot behold Him ; He hideth Himself 
on the right-hand, that I cannot see Him !" — for such, 
though we recollect no special declaration to that effect, 
we feel warranted in believing that the compassionate 
Advocate intercedes with peculiar sympathy and earnest- 
ness. Has He not said : " Blessed are they that mourn ; 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OP CHRIST. 441 

for, they shall be comforted ?" And does not Jehovah 
Himself solemnly and emphatically announce the special 
interest He takes in persons in this state of mind ? "Thus 
saith the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, 
whose name is Holy, ' I dwell in the high and holy place : 
with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to 
revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart 
of the contrite ones.' " — Isaiah lvii, 15. Such being the 
tender regard evinced for the humble penitent, by the 
high and lofty One, whose distinctive appellative is the 
Holy, can we doubt that the sympathy and intercession 
of Him, who partakes so largely in human sorrows, are 
directed especially towards them? The contrary sup- 
position would be utterly incongruous to His compassionate 
nature, to His sympathy with man in distress and to His 
office as intercessor for man. 

He intercedes for His justified and regenerated people* 
For, no matter what or how high their attainments, they 
have nothing but what they have received; and would, at 
any time, were the supply of grace, on which they depend, 
withholden, fall back upon their native destitution of good, 
and return to their sinfulness and guilt. Hence, the inter- 
cession of their Advocate, and the blessings obtained by 
that intercession, are as needful to them as they were when 
they were rioting in sin, or when they were penitent 
seekers of salvation from it. And, surely, the sympathy 
of their Advocate will not have lessened, or its activity 
abated, because they have yielded themselves up to those 
influences which He Himself has put into operation ! This 
were to suppose Him less kind to the good, than to the 
sinner, — to the sheep of His fold, than to those who were 
without, — to His brethren, than to strangers and aliens, — 



442 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

to those who bear His image and breathe His spirit, than 
to those whose carnal mind is enmity to Himself, and 
stamps upon them the image of the "earthly, sensual and 
devilish." These suppositions were utterly absurd; and, 
consequently, we conclude that He intercedes specially for 
His people. 

He intercedes for His Church, as a community of indi- 
viduals engaged in His service, and set in the world to 
display His wisdom, His goodness and His power, in the 
right government of moral beings, and in the salvation 
of those exposed to various and formidable antagonism. 
It is in these respects that the Church is, in the Sacred 
writings, represented as a " light in the world" — a "city, 
that is set on a hill." Should the light, emanating from 
the Church, be lurid, or distorted by passing through dis- 
ordered media — should the city, set on the hill, exhibit 
a character of corruption, irregularity or insubordination, 
the fact of such perversion, from the intention with which 
the Church was established, would lead to consequences 
which would be seriously pernicious to the interests of 
mankind, and derogatory to the Divine glory. Hence 
the vast importance that the Church should be maintained 
in a state of purity, regularity and subordination; or, if, 
at any time, it should become corrupt, disorderly and 
refractory to Divine authority, proper means should be 
employed to purge away its defilement, and reduce it to 
order and subjection to the government of its rightful and 
righteous Sovereign. With this view, the great Mediator 
now intercedes for His Church, as He interceded for it in 
His valedictory prayer, when about to be torn, by a violent 
death, from the immediate superintendence of its interests, 
and a personal administration of its government. 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 443 

It remains now to consider for what benefits, the ever- 
living Advocate pleads, in behalf of these various classes 
which He has taken under His benevolent patronage; 
and, 

1. For mankind, as a whole, He claims, as merited by 
His atonement, a right to all that is necessary in order to 
their salvation. What is thus necessary, depends on so 
many contingencies that only such a one as our Advocate 
with the Father can know. Greater facilities are afforded 
to some than to others; but, to all, if there be any con- 
gruity in the Divine proceedings, any truth in Scripture 
teaching, there is granted all that is necessary to this 
purpose: so, that, all are left "without excuse," if, in the 
abuse of the power of free agency, with which they are 
endowed, they should "come short" of salvation. Salva- 
tion is, through the merits of Christ's atonement and the 
efficiency of His mediation, secured absolutely to all who 
die before they arrive at a state of mental and moral 
development which would qualify them to act the part of 
moral agents. At what age this competency to moral 
agency occurs, cannot be known by man. But, there can 
be no difficulty on the part of Him, who knoweth " what 
is in man," to determine the point with unerring certainty. 
It is probable that there is great diversity in this matter. 
But, though no two, of all the children born into the 
world, should attain to this competency at precisely the 
same age, there will be no difficulty in determining when 
every individual attains to it, with Him to whom accounta- 
bility is due. Our Divine Teacher, to whom, in the days 
of His flesh, "little children were brought," said: "Suffer 
the little children to come unto me — for, of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." It matters nothing, to the point 



444 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

we are now considering, whether the "kingdom of heaven," 
here, means the Church on earth, or the state of eternal 
blessedness; for, he that is a proper subject of the former ', 
is secure of an inheritance in the latter; unless, by moral 
delinquency, he alienate that inheritance, which those who 
have not attained to a competency for free moral agency 
cannot do; or, whether little children are here declared to 
be of the kingdom of heaven, or that those who are like 
tliem are so; for, it would be preposterous to suppose 
that the copy would be admitted into the kingdom of 
heaven, while the exemplar was excluded. Besides 
the class of which we have just spoken, we have no 
authority, from the word of God, for believing that one 
individual of the human race will be absolutely and 
unconditionally saved: but, we have clear and abundant 
authority for asserting that all that is necessary in order 
to salvation will be given to every individual of that race 
—"The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath 
appeared unto all men." And, this grace comes on 
account of the merits of Christ, and through His interces- 
sion for man. We shall mention but one, of the many 
provisions that are made for the salvation of redeemed 
man, and furnished through the intercession of our glo- 
rious Advocate with the Father. It is the gift of the Holy 
Ghost. He is the efficient Agent, in the whole process 
of human salvation. All else is only instrumentality. He 
quickens the dead — He enlightens the ignorant — He 
brings conviction to the conscience of the guilty — He 
prompts to and inspires prayer — He brings the mind 
into a position, and the heart into a state of preparation 
for the exercise of faith — He imparts assurance of justi- 
fication and adoption through faith — and He sanctifies 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 445 

the spirit of the faithful believer. But, we dwell not here 
upon the offices of the Holy Spirit He is sent by the 
Father — He is sent by Christ. We understand this to 
mean that He is sent by the Father, at the instance of 
Christ, or through His intercession. His mission is to all 
men — He "reproves" or convinces, . " the world of sin, 
of righteousness and of judgment." 

2. Christ intercedes for sinners as such, to procure for 
them such instrumentalities as shall be effectual in their 
salvation,, if they yield themselves up to their influence. 
We cannot specify these instrumentalities. They have 
respect to the peculiarities of each sinner's mental and 
moral condition and to the circumstances and relations in 
which he is placed, by his birth or other controlling causes. 
Prosperous and adverse fortune; sickness and health; the 
acquisition and loss of friends; the abominations of the 
wicked and the moral excellencies of the righteous; the 
proud, the insensible or the horrid death of the ungodly 
and the calm, peaceful or triumphant death of the pious — 
each of these is rendered instrumental in the salvation of 
men, and they are sent respectively to those upon whom, 
from their peculiarity of character, they are most likely 
to operate successfully. Another purpose of the interces- 
sion of Christ for sinners, as such, is that their opportunity 
to obtain salvation may be protracted as long as shall 
be necessary to determine whether they will or will not 
embrace it. None, we believe, will be cut off, till this 
point is settled. That the intercession of Christ has this 
scope, He, Himself, has taught us, in the parable of the 
Barren Fig-tree. If the sinner yield to the influence of 
the grace and instrumentality employed to save him, he 
becomes enlightened, as to> his true character and relation 



446 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

to God; and becomes, in consequence, alarmed at his 
danger, penitent for his sins and anxiously desirous to flee 
from the wrath to come, by conciliating the Divine favor, 
and by securing such a change, in heart and life, as will 
render him acceptable to God, and " meet for the inheri- 
tance of the saints in light." He now belongs to the class 
of penitent seekers of salvation. For these, 

3. Christ intercedes with His Father, that they may be 
"led on and instructed" in the way of salvation. Though 
alarmed at their danger, humbled and penitent for their 
sins, and anxiously solicitous for salvation, they know not 
what to do — they know not whither to flee — they know 
not how to escape the wrath they see impending over 
them, and to attain to that conformity to God and enjoy- 
ment of His favor, which, above all things, their souls 
desire. They need a continued supply of impulse, to 
keep awake this salutary, though painful apprehensiveness 
of soul — they need strength and encouragement, to sustain 
them, in the arduous struggle in which they are engaged 
— they need guidance and instruction, in their perplexity 
and their ignorance in regard to the way of salvation. 
And, all this is supplied to the sincere penitent and 
diligent seeker of salvation, through the efficient inter- 
cession of their ever-living Advocate. So, that, " He will 
not suffer the spirit to fail before Him, or the souls which 
He hath made ;" but will secure to them a guide, to lead 
them " out of darkness into His marvellous light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God" — will provide an influence, 
that shall "open their prison-doors" — will procure a man- 
date, which shall " proclaim deliverance to the captives" 
— and will obtain for them a full pardon and ample 
remission of all their sins. At His intercession, there 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 447 

shall be shed forth, upon the penitent seekers of salvation, 
an influence which, taking effect upon their entire moral 
nature, shall " create it anew in Christ Jesus, unto good 
works." Upon them, will be poured " the spirit of grace 
and supplication" — in them, will "the Holy Spirit make 
intercession, with groanings which cannot be uttered :" 
so, that, their " cry shall enter into the ears of the Lord 
of Sabaoth." Before their eyes, shall " Jesus Christ be 
set forth — evidently crucified for them ;" and they shall 
be endued with " boldness to enter into the holiest by the 
blood of Jesus." Through this boldness of faith, they 
shall attain to justification before God ; and, by its moral 
influence, shall they be " changed, from glory to glory," 
into the image of Him by whom, they were created, "in 
righteousness and true holiness." And, all the grace, 
whose influence effects all these great and important 
changes, is the "gift of God, through Jesus Christ" — 
through His merit and His intercession for the penitent 
seeker of salvation. 

4. Christ intercedes for His regenerate and justified 
people. These need strength, to be "steadfast and 
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," 
and that they may successfully " fight the good fight of 
faith" — resisting and overcoming "the world, the flesh 
and the Devil." They need spiritual nutriment, that they 
may " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ" — that they may "grow up into 
Him in all things" — till they attain to "the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ, and are filled with all 
the fullness of God." They need patience, and fortitude, 
and resolution, that they may "endure unto the end" — 
" be faithful unto death :" so, that they may " finish their 



448 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

course with joy," and receive the " crown of life, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give unto all them 
who love His appearing and kingdom." Now, all this 
strength, nutriment, patience, fortitude and resolution, 
a come down from the Father of lights," and are fruits 
of the intercession of Christ for His followers. He sym- 
pathizes in their weakness, knows all their conflicts, 
surveys all their discouragements, difficulties and dangers; 
and procures for them " grace to help them in their time 
of need." If they use the grace given, they shall not 
only not waver, draw back nor fall ; but shall grow up, 
from little children, to strong young men- — to fathers in 
Christ, and shall be " kept, by the power of God, through 
faith, to salvation." And, having run well and patiently ; 
fought bravely, and conquered gloriously, " shall sit down 
with Christ in His throne, as He overcame, and is set 
down with His Father in His throne" — a consummation 
worthy our most ardent aspirations ! 

5. Finally, Christ intercedes for His Church, as a com- 
munity of individuals engaged in His service, and set in the 
world to display His wisdom, goodness and poiver in the 
right government of moral Icings, and in the salvation of 
tlwse exposed to various aud formidable antagonism. The 
manner in which He intercedes for the Church will be best 
learned from a careful consideration of His prayer, in the 
seventeenth chapter of the Gospel by St. John. In the 
commencement of this act of devotion, the Divine Wor- 
shiper notes the arrival of the hour in which the important 
enterprise, which He came into the world to achieve, was 
to receive its full accomplishment. He had performed 
the active part of Hi& mission ; and was now just entering 
upon the last scene of suffering, to which, in undertaking 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 449 

that enterprise, He had subjected Himself. He exults in 
the fact, that, in the performance of the part assumed by 
Him, He had glorified His Father on earth ; and prays 
that His Father would, in like manner, glorify Him — 
"Glorify Thou me with Thine Ownself, with the glory 
which I had with Thee before the world was!" How 
amply this prayer was answered, in many circumstances 
of His death, is seen in the preternatural darkness that 
hid from view the guilty earth, when her bosom was 
stained by His sacrilegious murder- — perpetrated by the 
hands of her felon sons — in the earthquake, which rived 
the rocks asunder, spread dismay among the living, and 
accompanied the waking of many who had long .slept in 
the dust of the tomb — in the rending, from top to bottom, 
of the veil, in the temple, which divided between the holy 
place and the most holy — phenomena, these, which elicited 
from the centurion, who commanded at His death, the 
exclamation — " Truly, this was the Son of God !" Espe- 
cially was this prayer eminently answered in the resurrection 
from the dead, and in the triumphant ascension of the 
Suppliant into heaven. 

The Divine Suppliant closely adapts His prayer to the 
interests of His Church, His personal superintendence of 
which was now to cease. The existing members of that 
Church had been given to Him out of the world by the 
Father; and, to them He had "manifested the name of 
His Father:" He had "given them the words of the 
Father," which they had not only received, but also 
believed. They had especially embraced, as true and 
worthy of entire confidence, the "testimony which the 
Father had given of His Son;" and, now, they belonged 
to Christ, not merely as having been given to Him by the 

29 



450 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 

Father, but also by their own act of adherence to Him, 
and by the conformity to Him, into which they had been 
wrought by the transforming influence of their faith. 
The prayer which He now offers up, He declares to be 
exclusively for His Church — for those who now believe 
on Him, and those who, through the instrumentality of 
these, should afterwards believe on Him — "I pray for 
them — I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou 
hast given me." — Verse 9. " Neither pray I for these 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through 
their word." — Verse 20. 

This prayer embraces Jive important interests of the 
Church — interests which will maintain their value undi- 
minished to the end of time. The first is fidelity to her 
obligation. The Saviour prays: "Holy Father! keep, 
through Thine Own name, those whom Thou hast given 
me!" — Verse 11. Many influences would be exerted to 
turn them aside, or to turn them back from the good way 
on which they had entered — these influences would be 
too strong for them, if encountered in their own strength. 
Hence, the Saviour prays that His Father would keep them, 
by His power, through faith, to salvation. Secondly: The 
Church is in an enemy's land — in an insalubrious clime 
— entangled in difficulties and exposed to dangers. The 
Saviour prays, not that she should be removed out of 
these circumstances of trial, conflict and suffering, but 
that she should be preserved, unharmed, while involved in 
them. "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of 
the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the 
-evil." — Verse 15. It is far better to come out of trial 
nnharmed, than not to have been tried, as trials over- 
come, bring strength, and courage, and patience, and 



ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 451 

self-respect to the conqueror. Thirdly: Purification, by 
the instrumentality of truth, is asked for the Church — 
purification from error in doctrine, corruption in principle 
and viciousness in practice. The active Agent, in this 
purification, is God — the instrumentality is the Gospel of 
truth. Such an Agency, wielding such an instrumentality, 
is surely competent to the important operation solicited! 
"Sanctify them, through Thy truth! — Thy Word is 
truth." — Verse 17. Fourthly: The Saviour earnestly, and 
with reiteration, prays for the unity of the Church — unity 
within itself, and unity with its God and Saviour. It is 
not at all likely, we think, that the unity here solicited, is 
predicated of forms of government, ceremonies of adminis- 
tration or mere opinions; but, of union in the fundamental 
doctrines of Christianity — in devotion to their common 
Sovereign — in zeal for the advancement of His cause in 
the world ; and, especially, in that love, which is the genius 
and life of true Christianity, and the strong bond of Chris- 
tian fellowship. Where these exist, union, for all purposes 
of importance, will exist, even though opinions, ceremonies 
and forms of government may sectionalize the Church 
into parties in any conceivable number. Fifthly: The 
Saviour prays that those who serve Him, in a Church-rela- 
tion, on earth, may be with Him, in His glory, in heaven. 
" Father ! I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, 
be with me, where I am ; that they may behold my glory/' 
— Verse 24. 

In conclusion, we remark, that this prayer for the 
Church, may, as we apprehend, be considered a fair repre- 
sentation of the intercession of Christ for the Church in 
all ages. We judge so, because it includes all that is 
important to the prosperity of the Church within itself; 



452 ASCENSION AND INTERCESSION OF CHEIST. 

and all that is necessary in order to its accomplishing the 
important purposes of its organization. Let it be remarked, 
however, that the intercession of Christ, is not intended to 
supersede, in any case, the moral agency of man. It will 
facilitate the exercise of that agency for good, whether by 
the constituent members of the Church, or by individuals; 
but it will not coerce such exercise in either case. What- 
ever is necessary, whether in the case of the individual or 
that of the Church, in order to the pursuing of a right, 
safe and prosperous course, will be solicited and obtained 
for both, by the Great Intercessor : but, let none hope to 
be compelled to a course of rectitude, or to be saved, unless 
he become, to that end a " worker together with God. 1 ' 



DISCOURSE XIV. 

THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES AFFECTING THE SALVATION 

OF MAN. 

The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet 
glorified. — John yii, 39. 

We have long entertained the opinion that Christian 
teachers, both writers and preachers, give, in their teaching, 
less prominence to the Holy Ghost than the importance 
of His relation to the cause of human salvation, and the 
example of the New Testament Scriptures would seem to 
render proper and incumbent on them. Are not the claims 
of God the Father and of Christ Jesus the Lord, upon the 
reverence, gratitude and devotion of man, much more 
frequently and much more urgently presented than those 
of the Holy Ghost — and, that, too, by honest votaries of 
the doctrine of Trinity in Unity ? Are not His offices 
and the part which He performs, in the salvation of man, 
far less frequently brought into view and urged upon the 
consideration of readers and hearers, than are those of the 
Father and of the Son ? And, wiry is this the case ? Is 
He of less dignity than the other Divine Persons in the 
sacred Unity ? Are his offices less necessary to the well- 
being of man, or the part He performs less indispensable, 
in the accomplishment of human salvation than theirs ? 

453 



454 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

What trinit 'avian will affirm that they are so ? And, if 
He is equal in dignity with the other Persons in the 
Godhead, and if His offices and operations are equally 
important with theirs, to the salvation and well-being of 
man, is it not a fault, in religious teaching, to treat Him 
and them with comparative neglect ? We so regard it ; 
and our purpose, therefore, is, in this Discourse, to pre- 
sent, at considerable length, a scriptural view of the offices 
and operations of the Holy Ghost, in the great enterprise 
of human salvation. Of His distinct personality and proper 
Divinity, we have spoken fully, in the Discourse on The 
Trinity in Unity of the Godhead. It is not necessary, we 
think, to repeat what is there said ; and, to that Discourse 
we refer, for our views upon these points. 

Before properly entering upon our subject, we shall 
make a general remark or two, having a bearing upon the 
affirmation in the text, that " The Holy Ghost was not yet 
given." The Holy Ghost was an important Actor in the 
great work of creation. By His agency the earth and the 
solar system itself were brought into the order, in which 
they substantially continue to this day. "The earth 
being without form and void, and darkness being upon the 
face of the deep, the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters" — of the confused, unshapen chaos. Imme- 
diately, order began to take the place of confusion, and 
light came to dissipate the darkness in which the embryo 
world was enveloped. Doubtless, the brooding influence 
of the Spirit prepared the heterogeneous mass for these 
important results, and materially contributed to their pro- 
duction. This is rendered probable, at least, by the 
assertion, Job xxvi, 13, that God, "by His Spirit, hath 
garnished the heavens." If He was the agent in marshal- 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 455 

ing, in their beauteous order, the brilliant hosts of heaven 
— the sun, the moon and the stars, is it not reasonable to 
conclude that to Him is due the honor of the order and 
harmony established throughout all parts of the created 
universe ? Nor, in the government of the moral world, 
has the Holy Ghost been without an important and leading 
position, in every age and under every Divine dispensation. 
Thus : we find Him the medium through which, or, more 
properly, the agent by whom Christ " preached unto the 
spirits in prison ; which sometime were disobedient, when 
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, 
while the ark was a preparing." By " spirits in prison," 
we understand the generation before the flood ,* who, for 
one hundred and twenty years, were held under arrest to 
meet the doom of the general deluge. For, during so long 
a term, " the long-suffering of God waited ;" and Noah, a 
preacher of righteousness, moved by the Holy Ghost, pro- 
claimed mercy to them, upon condition of repentance. 
But, the generation, so indulgently treated, continued 
rebellious, and were, at last, delivered over to the execu- 
tion of the sentence, which had so long been suspended 
by the Divine forbearance. The prediction of future 
events, or prophec) r , was a leading measure, in the Divine 
proceedings towards men, from the time when it was 
announced to the original transgressors that the Seed of the 
woman should bruise the head of the serpent until that 
prediction was fulfilled, in the glorious triumph of the 
Messiah over " him that had the power of death, that is, 
the Devil." From the New Testament writers, we learn 
that "prophecy came not, in old time, by the will of man; 
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost." It is evident, therefore, that our text does 



456 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES: 

not mean that, before the period at which Christ was 
glorified, the Holy Ghost had not been occupied in 
matters of human concernment; but, that the position 
He was to occupy and the relation He was to sustain to 
man, after that event, were to be not only different from 
what they were before, but more intimate in their connec- 
tion with man, and more extensively and strikingly 
important to human interests. Previously to that event, 
the Holy Ghost was recognised only in occasional opera- 
tions, subordinate to an immediate, supreme administration 
of the Divine government, first by the Father and then 
by the Son. After that event, though the Son was to 
continue supreme in the government of the Church and 
the world, that government was to be administered 
immediately by the Holy Ghost. Hence, the propriety 
of the declaration in the text : " The Holy Ghost was 
not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." 
We now proceed to consider the offices and operations of 
the Holy Ghost, under the present dispensation of God's 
mercy to, and government of the world. 
• L We first call attention to what seems to us an isolated 
fa€t — that is, a fact having no necessary nor obvious 
connection with the official position in general of the Holy 
Ghost, in relation to human interests. We allude to the 
part performed by Him in the Incarnation. Of the modus 
operandi, of putting on humanity, by the Divinity, we 
know and can know nothing whatever; but, we do know 
that the humanity of Christ was not produced by the 
ordinary process of generation — that it was conceived by 
a Virgin, without the loss of virgin-character; and that 
this conception was induced by the influence of the Holy 
Ghost, operating upon the Virgin-mother. The fact that 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 457 

the conception of Christ was produced by the operation 
of the Holy Ghost, appears to us decisive against the 
opinion of Dr. A. Clarke, that the Sonship of Christ is to 
be predicated of the incarnation. Were this the ground 
of His filial claim, might we not have expected to find 
that the conception was produced by the operation of the 
Father? Were Christ the Son of God only in relation to 
the incarnation, must not the Holy Ghost, by whose opera- 
tion that incarnation was brought about, be regarded as 
His Father? The Sonship of the Divinity in the Person 
of Christ, apart from the humanity, is as clearly taught, 
as is the Sonship of the Incarnate One Himself. We 
conclude, from all this, that the opinion of Dr. Clarke on 
this subject, is as erroneous as he regards that against 
which he urged it. Be all this as it may, the Agent in 
the incarnation of Divinity in humanity, in the person 
of Christ, was the Holy Ghost. 

2. The descent of the Holy Ghost, upon Jesus Christ 
immediately after His Baptism, is, by St. Paul, Acts x, 38, 
represented as anointing of Him to His public ministry, 
as the Messiah. " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with 
the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went about doing 
good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil." 
Prophets, priests and kings, under the former dispensa- 
tion, were sometimes, if not always, anointed with oil, by 
way of solemn consecration to their respective offices. 
The anointing of Christ, who was to fill all these offices, 
was with a far more sacred unction — the antitype of the 
precious oils prepared for the anointing of Aaron, to the 
high priesthood, of David, to royalty and of Elijah, to 
the prophetic office. In these latter cases, the unction 
was merely emblematical — in that of Christ, it was 



458 THE HOLY GHOST AKD HIS OFFICES. 

intrinsically efficacious — conveying the virtues and the 
energy which were only signified by that of the others. 
In the setting apart of Jesus Christ, to the important 
offices He was to fill, as the Messiah, as well as in opera- 
ting the incarnation of Divinity in the humanity, in the 
person of Christ, the functions of the Holy Ghost were 
of primary importance and of high dignity — exhibiting 
Him in the light of taking a leading part in the trans- 
cendency benevolent enterprise of man's redemption and 
salvation. In this great work, all the Persons in the 
Godhead took prominent and efficient part. The Father 
"so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten 
Son," to die for it: — the Son, "because the children were 
partakers of flesh and blood, also, Himself, likewise, took 
part of the same; that, through death," He might "redeem 
man from under the curse of the law;" and, the Holy 
Ghost, by His influence on the Virgin Mary, enabled her 
to become the instrument of the incarnation, and by His 
descent upon the recently baptized Jesus of Nazareth, 
consecrated Him to the Messiahship — to be Prophet, 
Priest and King, for the instruction, redemption and 
salvation of all who would receive and submit to Him. 
" Here the whole Deity is known ! " 

3. The Holy Ghost was a Witness to Christ — attesting 
the Divine authority of His mission into the world. This 
attestation was first given by action. When Jesus Christ 
was baptized by John the Baptist, as He came up from 
the water, the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the 
form of a dove; and, at the same time, a voice was heard 
from heaven, proclaiming: "This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased." — Matthew iii, 16; Mark i, 10; 
Luke iii, 22; and John i, 32-34. That this descent of 



THE HOLY GHOST AND- HIS OFFICES. 459 

the Holy Ghost upon Jesus, was an attestation of His 
being the Messiah — the Son of God, we learn from the 
testimony of John the Baptist, John i, 33. Speaking of 
Jesus, he says : " I knew Him not; but, He that sent me 
to baptize with water, said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt 
see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same 
is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" — a clear 
and an unequivocal designation of the Messiah! This 
testimony, to the Messiahship of Jesus, was exhibited in 
the commencement of His public ministry. A fuller, 
though not a more explicit attestation to the same pur- 
pose, is given, after His resurrection from the dead. 
Peter, with the concurrence of the other apostles, declares, 
Acts v, 30, 31, to his Jewish audience, that " The God of 
our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye hanged on a tree. 
Him hath God exalted with His right hand to he a Prince 
and a. Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel and for- 
giveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these 
things; and so also is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath 
given to them that obey Him." And, so important, in 
the estimation of St. Paul, is the testimony and influence 
of the Holy Ghost, in making manifest the claim of Jesus 
to the Messiahship, that He says, 1 Cor. xii, 3 : "No man 
can say that ' Jesus is Lord,' but by the Holy Ghost." 
Not only, then, has the Holy Ghost witnessed generally 
to the claims of Jesus to the Messiahship, but He affords 
distinct and convincing evidence of the validity of those 
claims to every individual who submits to and is governed 
by His guidance and influence. 

4. The Holy Ghost, with plenary power, administers the 
government of the kingdom which the Messiah has estab- 
lished in the ear!h: so, that, from the day of Pentecost, 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

when the Holy Ghost was given, until the consummation 
of all things, has been appropriately denominated The 
dispensation of the Holy Ghost, as former dispensations 
were called the dispensation of the Father, and the dis- 
pensation of Christ, or the Son. As they were, in their 
respective dispensations, the prominent actors, in the 
great enterprise of human amelioration and salvation, so 
is He, in this dispensation. This, it is our purpose to 
exemplify in several particulars; and, 

(1.) He has clearly revealed the mode in which men, 
rebels and aliens by nature, may be admitted to the rights 
and immunities of Messiah's kingdom. Though much 
information, in regard to this important matter, had been 
previously communicated to man, it was not until the Holy 
Ghost came upon the disciples, on the day of Pentecost, 
that it was made entirely clear. Immediately after that 
event, the apostles preached "repentance towards God, and 
faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," with such effect that 
multitudes were " cut to the heart, and cried out," to the 
apostles: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" And, 
upon their being instructed to " believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ," they accepted Him, with firm trust and confi- 
dence, as their all-sufficient Saviour and rightful Sovereign; 
and all who did so, were "justified from all from which 
they could not be justified by the law of Moses" — were 
converted — "created in Christ Jesus unto good works," 
and were adopted, as children of God, and "fellow-citizens 
with the saints." The terms of admission, into the kingdom 
of the Messiah, are the same to all — to Jew and Gentile, 
bond and free, wise and unwise, to whom the Gospel is 
published. It was by the express authority of the Holy 
Ghost that "the middle wall of partition" between Jews 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 461 

and Gentiles, was taken down, and both made to stand on 
the same platform, so far as regarded a participation in the 
benefits of Christ's kingdom: so, that, thenceforth, there 
was " no difference between the Jew and the Greek," but 
the Jews were to be " saved even as they." 

(2.) The Holy Ghost organized and continues in 
operation a system of instrumentalities, to promote the 
"increase and government" of the kingdom in His charge. 
The chief of these is the Ministry of the Gospel. In the 
primitive Church, there were several orders in this min- 
istry. Some of these, we suppose, were peculiar to the 
occasion of founding the Church. This, we apprehend, 
was remarkably the case with the order of apostles. The 
apostles were evidently invested with universal pastoral 
authority. And, there is not the slightest evidence, in 
the Sacred Writings, that this universal pastorate was dis- 
tributed into episcopal and archiepiscopal dioceses, and 
assigned, distributively, to the thirteen or fourteen 
apostles. On the contrary, it is evident to us, that, 
where any apostle happened to be, his pastoral jurisdic- 
tion was admitted without question. It is true, that, by 
agreement, Paul and Barnabas usually bestowed theii 
labors among the Gentiles ; while James, Peter and John 
more especially ministered to those of the circumcision ; 
yet, we think it is unquestionable that Peter, at least, 
sometimes ministered to the Gentiles ; and, we know that 
Paul was in the frequent habit of ministering to the Jews, 
up to the time of his being sent prisoner to Rome. Now, 
nothing ever has existed in the Church, since apostolic 
times, bearing any respectable resemblance to this 
universal pastorate of the apostles. The pretense that 
diocesan bishops are successors and representatives of 



462 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

the apostles, as an order of Christian ministers, is simply 
ridiculous — having no show of rational suppoTt, in the 
sacred Scriptures, in ecclesiastical history or in the nature 
of the case. As little resemblance do the Pope and col- 
lege of cardinals bear to the apostles, who were equal to 
each other in authority ; interchangeably and with full 
power, laboring in the same field and going everywhere to 
preach the Gospel. The evangelists constituted another 
order of primitive ministers, which, as they exercised the 
authority of apostles in the fields of labor assigned them, 
in absence of an apostle, were, we think, intended to have 
place only during the formative period of the Church. 
If they have any representatives in modern times, they 
are found in itinerant missionaries, whose business it is to 
found Churches, wherever the Gospel brings men to the 
knowledge of salvation, and to appoint in them the 
ordinary officers, permanently requisite in the Church. 
These, we conceive, are presbyters, or bishops, and dea- 
cons, or servants of the Church. That the terms presbyter 
and bishop indicate the same order of ministers, in the 
Church, no man of competent understanding can or will 
deny. And, we go farther and affirm that there is not, 
in the whole New Testament, a single intimation that 
there existed, in the primitive Church, an episcopal order, 
distinguished from or superior to presbyters. At what 
period, an official distinction, of this kind, was introduced 
into the Church, is here a matter of no consequence — it 
is enough to know that it did not belong to the constitu- 
tion of the Church, as organized by the apostles, under 
the supervision of the Holy Ghost. The order of deacons, 
or servants of the Church, did belong to it. These, though 
sometimes preachers of the Gospel, were not, we appro- 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 463 

hend, always so, nor, consequently, were they so in virtue 
of their office of deacon. 

Not only were the orders of the ministry, both extra- 
ordinary and permanent, instituted by the Holy Ghost^ 
but the men, proper to be admitted into these orders, 
except, perhaps, that of deacons, were personally and 
directly selected and called by Him. That He has not 
relinquished or abated His right of making this selection, 
and moving the person selected to compliance with His 
requisition, is, we believe, adopted in the creed of almost 
every sect and denomination of Christians, which professes 
to found itself upon the Word of God. It is true, that 
too many adopt this principle with a latitude of significa- 
tion that entirely nullifies its import. Still, the requirement 
that those who offer to the Church, for ministerial orders, 
should declare that they are "inwardly moved by the 
Holy Ghost, to take upon themselves" such orders, is a 
recognition of the permanently active prerogative of the 
Holy Ghost to perform this important function in the gov- 
ernment of the Church. The unwise ordinations, of most 
of the Churches, that none shall be admitted to these 
orders without qualifications conferred by human agency, 
are calculated, practically, to suspend the exercise of this 
prerogative on the part of the Holy Ghost. It has ever 
been the case, that men, who have been organized into 
Church relations, have soon become, in their own imagina- 
tions, "wise above what is written;" and, consequently, 
have considered themselves called upon to improve what 
God has ordained, by emendations, if not by downright 
substitutions, originating in their own superior wisdom ! 
There is, we think, now in existence scarcely one branch 
of the Christian Church, which did not, in its palmy days, 



464 THE HOLT GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

allow unlettered men to preach the Gospel, after the homely 
example of primitive Christianity. How many of those 
sects noio require, as a sine qua non, a certain amount of 
liberal education, as well as a long course of theological 
training, in order to admission into the ministry ! And, 
are not other Churches, whose success, by means of au 
unlearned ministry, has thrown the glory upon Him, to 
whom it should redound, in a manner and to a degree 
unexampled in any contemporary sect, which boasts a 
learned ministry, hastening to a conclusion very similar to 
that so wisely adopted by the Israelites, when they resolved 
that they would have a king, like the nations that ivere 
around them? Whenever these Churches shall have 
theological institutions in general operation, they will 
require high literary and theological qualifications in those 
whom they admit to the ministry — the exercise of His 
prerogative, of selecting for the ministry, will be practi- 
cally denied by them to the Holy Ghost — and Ichabod 
may be written on their banners; for, "the glory will 
have departed" from them. 

The other instrumentalities, instituted by the Holy 
Ghost, or adopted by Him, in His administration of the 
government in Messiah's kingdom, are Church-fellowship, 
Social Worship and the Sacraments of Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. The first of these is vastly important, 
being adapted to one of the strongest tendencies in 
human nature — the love of society. Man is eminently a 
social being ; and, whether for good or evil, society exer- 
cises a prevailing influence with almost every individual 
of the human race. Church-fellowship, then, which brings 
together men of like predilections in piety, is calculated 
to render every individual more intelligent, more steadfast, 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 465 

more confident and better contented than he could be, if 
honestly pursuing a course of piety alone. So important, 
to the individual engaged in a Christian course, is associa- 
tion with others pursuing a like course, that, were it not 
an imposed duty to enter into Church-fellowship, it would 
be the part of wisdom to do it, at almost any sacrifice, as 
a matter of privilege. " How can one be warm alone? 
Woe to him that is alone when he falleth 1 As iron 
sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his 
friend. Two are better than one. A three-fold cord is 
not easily broken." But, we need not insist on a matter 
so universally understood and assented to as is the 
advantage of society : we shall, therefore, only further 
remark that, owing to the many and violent antagonisms 
with which it must contend, a life of piety peculiarly needs 
that advantage. 

Social Worship, consisting in prayer and singing praise 
to God, is another instrumentality of great importance and 
efficacy. Occasions are continually occurring, in which 
greater wisdom or power is required, in order to safety and 
happiness, than belongs to individuals or to society. In 
cases of this kind, man is permitted and encouraged to 
invoke the aid of the All-wise — the Almighty; and, 
though individual and private prayers have assurances of 
a favorable audience, whenever rightly addressed to the 
Father of mercies, there is peculiar emphasis in the 
promise that is given to social prayer : " If two of you 
shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall 
ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in 
heaven." — Matthew xviii, 19. There is, we suppose, no 
more efficacy in the prayer of two or of ten thousand, than 
there is in that of a single individual ;. but,, the moral 

30' 



4:6$ THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

effect of social prayer is such — heart kindling heart, 
devotion deepening devotion and faith strengthening faith 
in those who pray together, as to warrant peculiar urgency 
in enforcing the duty of engaging in it, and peculiar 
encouragement to enjoy so advantageous a privilege. No 
religious community ever did or ever will flourish, in vital 
godliness, unless social worship is maintained in it ; and, 
no such community ever did or ever will languish, where 
social worship is habitually, frequently and fervently 
offered up, by any considerable proportion of its members. 
Where this is the case, reverence to, and habitual depend- 
ence on God ; a relish for sacred things, and an aspiration 
after conformity to Him will be certain to characterize 
those who are thus occupied in social worship to the 
a High and Holy One." Individual piety, as well as the 
prosperity of the community, will be promoted, in exact 
proportion to the diligence and earnestness with which this 
duty is performed, under the direction of the Word of 
God. 

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are instrumentalities, 
designed and calculated to promote the prosperity of 
Messiah's kingdom. They are both representative and 
saeramental in their character. The former represents 
the Baptism of the Holy Ghost — the cleansing of man's 
moral nature, by the influence of the Holy Spirit: — the 
latter represents the sacrifice which Christ made of Him- 
self once for all mankind, through the merit of which, all 
may attain to pardon of sins, and to a meetness for " the 
inheritance of the saints in light." Both these ordinances 
have been regarded, by large portions of the Christian 
world, as far more important, in the economy of human 
salvation, than, in the sacred Scriptures, they are repre- 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 467 

sented to be; and, the latter especially, has been the 
subject of as gross superstition as ever stultified the 
human understanding. We mean, of course, the super- 
stition that, in the Lord's Supper, the real body and blood 
of Christ are received, swallowed and appropriated by 
digestion! To render this superstition the more revolt- 
ingly absurd, it supposes that ordinary bread and wine 
are, by the manipulations and invocations of the priests, 
changed into that real body and blood ! That such pro- 
fane nonsense has ever had one votary out of Bedlam, is 
passing strange — that it should be a prominent article in 
the creed of a community, which claims to be the only 
true Church, is stranger than any fiction in Munchausen 
or the Arabian Nights, and is deemed possible only 
because it is a notorious fact. In their representative 
character, these ordinances are of great value; and, so 
they are in their sacramental. Baptism pledges its subject 
to the service of God, for the whole of subsequent life ; 
and, is, therefore, the appropriate ordinance by which man 
is initiated into the kingdom or Church of the Messiah. 
The Lord's Supper is a renewal of the pledge given in 
Baptism. Both, when rightly administered, and, especially, 
when rightly regarded by the recipient, are means of 
grace, of great efficiency; but, like all other instrumen- 
talities, they are of no value, nay, they become a curse to 
those who receive them improperly, or as mere ceremonies. 
We do not find any importance or sacredness, superior to 
that of other Christian institutions — prayer, for instance 
• — ascribed by Holy Writ to either of these ordinances. 
It is true, that there are thrilling memories and touching 
associations in the Lord's Supper, well calculated to render 
it more impressive than other religious observances. But, 



468 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

we shall seek, in the sacred Scriptures, in vain for the 
superior importance which this ordinance has obtained in 
the estimation of so many. 

(3.) The Holy Ghost has supplied as code of laws, for 
the moral government of the Messiah's kingdom under 
His administration. All the laws embraced in that code, 
had been, we believe, communicated, with more or less 
clearness, previously to the day of Pentecost; but, after 
that day, they were set forth with more of system in their 
arrangement; a more exact representation of their neces- 
sity in the condition of man and of the tendency of their 
influence, both upon individuals and upon society, and, 
especially, with a clear and more forcible exhibition of the 
sanction,, by which they are enforced. The moral require- 
ments of the New Testament are admitted, by candid 
infidels themselves, to be superior in purity, in their 
adaptedness to the wants of human nature and in their 
conservative tendency upon the interests of man in society, 
to any system of ethics ever offered to the consideration 
of man, or urged upon his observance. What, more than 
anything else, distinguishes the morality of the New 
Testament, and elevates it above all competition, is the 
fact that its chief restraints are laid upon the springs of 
moral action True : the actions themselves are legislated 
for; but, the stress of moral requirement is upon the 
heart — the fountain whence moral good and evil, in 
action, always proceed. The philosophy of Gospel-morality 
is, that " if the tree be made good, the fruit will be good 
also" — that a pure heart will secure the maintenance of a 
"good conscience" — of a "conscience void of offense, 
both towards God and towards men." 

We have thus far assumed that these functions of 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 469 

administration, in the government of the Messiah's king- 
dom, are performed by the Holy Ghost. This assumption 
we shall now attempt to support, by producing some of the 
evidences of its truth which are afforded by the New 
Testament Scriptures, Acts v, 3 : " And Peter said, Ana- 
nias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy 
Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land ? r ' 
The evidence, that supreme authority, in the administra- 
tion of the Messiah's kingdom, was vested in the Holy 
Ghost, found in this passage, is, though indirect, perfectly 
conclusive. For the promotion of the interests of that 
kingdom, Barnabas and others had consecrated their pos- 
sessions, and had placed them in the hands of the apostles, 
to be, by them, appropriated to that object Ananias 
pretended to do the same thing, while he only surrendered 
a part of those possessions. The apostles were the osten- 
sible parties with whom Ananias transacted this affair — 
yet, Peter says, in effect, that the transaction was not 
properly with them, but with the Holy Ghost. This could 
be true, only on the supposition that to the Holy Ghost 
belonged supreme authority in the administration of affairs 
in the Church, under whom the apostles were only subor- 
dinate officers, or, more properly, mere ministers. If the 
interests of the Church or kingdom of Christ were com- 
mitted to the supreme direction and guardianship of the 
Holy Ghost, then was it "to the Holy Ghost" that Ananias 
lied, when he pretended a greater contribution to those 
interests than he had actually made. Acts xv, 28 : " It 
seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon 
you no greater burden than these necessary things." A 
question had arisen in the Church, e whether it was neces- 
sary, under the Messiah's reign, as it had been in the 



470 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

foregoing dispensation, that a man should be circumcised 
in order to the enjoyment of the rights and privileges 
belonging to a subject of His government?' It is mani- 
fest that the apostles had not authority to settle this 
question. Only the supreme authority was competent to do 
it; and, as it was settled by the Holy Ghost, the apostles, of 
course, concurring, it is evident that to the Holy Ghost- 
belonged that supreme authority. Acts xiii,2-4 : "The Holy 
Ghost said: 6 Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work 
whereunto I have called them.' . . So, they, being sent forth 
by the Holy Ghost," etc. Acts xx, 28 ; « The Holy Ghost 
hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which 
He hath purchased with His own blood." These passages 
conclusively affirm that the selection and employment of 
ministers of the Gospel were by the Holy Ghost. We 
deem it wholly unnecessary to pursue the matter any 
further — satisfied that it has been rendered indubitable 
that to the Holy Ghost is committed the supreme adminis- 
tration of the Messiah's kingdom on earth. 

5. The Holy Ghost has authenticated His claim to 
supreme administrative authority in the kingdom of the 
Messiah, by the exhibition of miraculous power in its 
support. 

(1.) The 'prediction of future contingent events, with 
truth and certainty, is as clearly miraculous as the raising 
of the dead to life; and, He, who can enable man so to 
predict, has miraculous power.- The exercise of thfe 
power, to confirm an affirmation, or in attestation of a 
claim to authority, is the highest possible evidence that 
could be produced in the case, inasmuch as it is a pledge 
of Divine truth, by the exercise of Divine power, in 
behalf of the truth of the affirmation so confirmed, or of 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 471 

the validity of the claim so attested. Thus did the Holy 
Ghost authenticate His claim to the supreme administra- 
tive authority in the Church, by enabling the disciples to 
prophesy, or predict future contingent events. Indeed, 
in all ages, men prophesied only " as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost." He is exclusively the " Spirit of 
prophecy." Acts ii, 17, 18: "I will pour out of my Spirit 
upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy. And, on my servants and on my handmaidens 
I will pour out in those days, of my Spirit; and they 
shall prophesy." Acts xxi, 11: "Thus saith the Holy 
Ghost: 'So shall the Jews, at Jerusalem bind the man 
that owneth this girdle." 1 Cor. xii, 8-10: "To one is 
given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom ... to another 
prophecy." 1 Tim. iv, 1: "Now, the Spirit speaketh 
expressly, that, in the latter times, some shall depart from 
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of 
Devils." Thus, we have the power of predicting future 
contingent events expressly ascribed to the Holy Ghost; 
and several instances of such predictions, which, by having 
been fulfilled, are seen to have been uttered with truth and 
certainty. 

(2.) He authenticated the high claim in question, by 
enabling men both to speak intelligibly in languages they 
had never learned, and to interpret those languages cor- 
rectly, when spoken by others. We are inclined to the 
opinion, that, on the day of Pentecost, the miracle of 
tongues consisted, not in the speaking, by the apostles, of 
the various languages which were heard by the mixed mul- 
titude, who understood the apostles in the languages in 
which they themselves had been educated, but in the hearing 
of those variously-tongued auditors. The effect upon the 



472 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

auditors would have been precisely the same, whether the 
miracle were in the speaking, or in the hearing; while, on 
the supposition that it was in the hearing, every one in the 
audience, at the same time, might understand every apostle 
who spoke : whereas, if the miracle were in the speaking, each 
speaker at any given time, could be understood only by 
that part of the multitude who understood the particular 
language in which he was speaking. Be this as it may, 
the power of speaking in languages never learned, was, for 
a considerable time, one of the miraculous gifts of the 
Holy Ghost to the teachers of the Christian Church; as 
was, also, the power of interpreting those languages. This, 
in the propagation of the Gospel, in the many-tongued 
earth, was of great importance, not merely as a miraculous 
authentication of the Gospel, but as an instrumentality in 
that propagation. How vastly would such a power, at 
this day, promote the spread of the Gospel among the 
heathen ! How greatly would it facilitate the operations 
of Missionaries among them — say, among the Chinese — 
if those Missionaries had the gift of tongues, so that they 
could immediately proclaim the Gospel to them in their 
own language, instead of having to communicate it to 
them, by the onerous and almost always greatly defective 
mode of speaking through an interpreter. 

(3.) The Holy Ghost authenticated His supreme 
administrative authority, by enabling His servants to 
perform the miracles of healing the sick and the lame, 
and of restoring the dead to life. Instances of these 
miracles are numerous ; but, they are so familiar to the 
knowledge and recollection of most persons, who have the 
Bible in their possession, that it is not deemed necessary 
to cite them. The lame man, cured by Peter and John, 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 473 

Eneas, the multitudes cured of diseases, by even indirect 
communication with the apostles — the restoration of Dor- 
cas, by Peter, and that of Eutychus, by Paul, are matters 
with which there is so much familiarity as to render it 
wholly superfluous to dwell upon them. The power of 
performing these miracles is ascribed to the effusion of the 
Holy Ghost upon those who performed them ; though, in 
their performance, the name of Jesus was invoked. In 
this matter, and, indeed, in all others having relevancy, 
the regal authority of Christ, in His kingdom, is recog- 
nized ; while the supreme administrative authority is 
claimed for the Holy Ghost, and authenticated to Him by 
infallible attestation. 

(4.) He authenticated His claim to this authority, by 
rendering the preaching of the Gospel " the power of God 
unto salvation," in thousands of thousands of instances. 
The first sermon that was preached, after the Holy Ghost 
came upon the apostles, on the day of Pentecost, was so 
effectual, in the conversion of sinners, that three thousand 
were added to the number of the disciples ! After this, 
while yet the apostles confined their preaching to Jerusa- 
lem, we hear of " multitudes, both of men and women, who 
believed" the Gospel, and were added to the Church in 
that city. Even a " great company of the priests" — the 
least likely, perhnps, of any of the various classes to whom 
the Gospel was preached — "were obedient to the faith." 
Soon, moreover, the preachers of the Gospel were thrust 
out of Jerusalem, into the wide fields of the world, to 
preach everywhere the Gospel of salvation to perishing 
sinners ; and, wherever they preached that Gospel, whether 
to Jews or Gentiles, whether at Samaria or Csesarea, the 
Holy Ghost accompanied and rendered effectual the word 



474 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

of His grace : so, that, in less than half a century from 
the time when the Founder of Christianity hung, in igno- 
miny, on the Cross, His disciples were found, in great 
numbers, in almost every nation under heaven, of which 
history has preserved any contemporary information. 
Mighty Rome, learned Greece, luxurious Asia, degraded 
Africa, the islands of the seas sent up, in their own lan- 
guages and styles of speaking, one common Hymn, caught 
from the choristers of heaven: "Glory to God, in the 
highest ! on earth, peace, and good will unto men ! " 
* God hath sent His Son, Jesus, to bless us, in turning 
away every one of us from our iniquities;" and "hath 
exalted Him to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repent- 
ance and remission of sins.' , " To Him that loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in His own blood, be glory, 
and honor, and might, and dominion both now and for- 
ever ! " And, ever since, when the Gospel is anywhere 
" preached, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,' , 
it is " mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the 
strongholds" of sin and Satan, and to the building up of 
the kingdom of Christ on earth. And, what could more 
clearly authenticate the supreme administrative authority 
of the Holy Ghost in that kingdom than this ? 

6. The Holy Ghost is personally engaged in carrying 
on the administration of the kingdom of the Messiah, both 
in extending its authority over those who are "aliens from 
the Commonwealth of Israel" and in regulating its internal 
affairs. We notice especially, 

(1.) That He reproves, or convinces the world — the 
men that "know not God," that "are strangers to the 
covenant of promise"- — of sin — quickens their moral 
nature, " dead in trespasses and sins," into new life and 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 475 

sensibility — opens their eyes to the purity, authority and 
inflexibility of the Divine law, to their obligation to be 
conformed to its requirements, to their fearful delinquency 
to that obligation, and to their consequent condemnation 
by the law. This, when yielded to on the part of the 
sinner, excites alarm, humiliation, penitence and an 
anxious desire to "flee from the wrath to come," and 
prompts to corresponding efforts. He, then, reproves, or 
convinces of righteousness— manifests to the awakened and 
alarmed sinner, who is penitently and anxiously seeking 
salvation, God's method of justifying, or rendering right- 
eous those who have sinned against Him — setting before 
him Jesus Christ, the Bighteous, crucified, for the expia- 
tion of his sins, risen again for his justification and gone 
to His Father in heaven, to intercede for him before the 
offended Majesty : thus affording to his faith an adequate 
object ; upon whom, " whosoever belie veth, shall not 
perish, but have everlasting life." And, finally, He 
reproves, or convinces the disciple, whom He is leading out 
from the world into the kingdom of Christ, of judgment — 
of the judgment which has gone against the \ prince of this 
world — the ruling influence, which operates in the hearts 
of the fallen children of men — that it is to be "cast out" 
— the "old man must be crucified, with his affections and 
lusts." Not only must the life be reformed,, but the heart 
must be changed, till " every imagination of the thought 
of the heart shall be brought into captivity to the obedi- 
ence of Christ." Thus does the Holy Ghost " work in 
men, to will and to do of the good pleasure of God ;" and 
if the sinner, thus impelled and assisted, " work out his 
own salvation, with fear and trembling," he will be " trans- 



476 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

lated into the kingdom of God's dear Son," which consists 
in "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 

(2.) The Holy Ghost authenticates the justification 
and conversion, or new-birth of the sinner, by " sealing 
him" with the impression of the Divine image ; thus 
witnessing to God the genuineness of the change which 
has passed upon both his legal relation and his moral 
state, and attesting his right to all the privileges of a 
child of God, and a subject of Messiah's kingdom. His 
rights and privileges are thus made patent, by the admin- 
istrative authority of the Holy Ghost. 

(3.) The Holy Ghost witnesses the same important 
matters to the justified and converted sinner himself. 
This is important, both for the comfort of the subject of 
these important changes, and for the moral influence 
which a knowledge of such changes is calculated to exert. 
What could so effectually excite gratitude, love and devo- 
tion to God as a knowledge that our sins, which were so 
many and so great, are all forgiven, for the sake of the 
Redeemer's merits? — that our moral natures, which were 
all corruption and perverseness, are purified and har- 
monized with the will of God ? — and, that our state, 
which was lost, undone and ruined, is retrieved and ren- 
dered safe and happy, by the changes wrought in us, by 
the grace and Spirit of God ? It is, surely, worthy the 
benevolence of God, and His care for the purity and 
rectitude of His moral creatures, to impart a knowledge 
of the changes which have passed on them, to the justified 
and regenerated, since that knowledge is vastly important 
alike to their happiness and to their moral perfection I 
The knowledge, so imparted, is clear and unequivocal, 
communicated directly to the consciousness, and not left 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 477 

to be obtained by a slow, and doubtful process of meta- 
physical reasonings. It is witnessed immediately, to the 
spirit of the subject of these changes, by the Spirit of 
God. Thus, under the impulse and guidance of the Holy 
Ghost, the sinner has been " brought out of darkness, into 
marvelous light — from the kingdom of Satan, to God;" 
and is now a " fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the 
household of God." 

That the changes, in the justified and converted sinner's 
condition, have been operated immediately by the influence 
of the Holy Spirit, using various instrumentalities, par- 
ticularly the preaching of the Gospel, or, occasionally, with 
no appreciable means, is abundantly and clearly taught in 
the Divine Word. John vi, 63 : "It is the Spirit that 
quickeneth." 2 Corinthians iii, 6 : " The Spirit giveth 
life." Ephesians ii, 1 : "You hath He quickened, who 
were dead in trespasses and sins." Thus, we see, it is by 
the Holy Ghost that those who are dead in tresspasses and 
sins, are quickened, and so rendered susceptible of Divine 
influence, and capable of performing the part assigned to 
them, in order to their salvation. Ephesians v, 13 : "All, 
things that are reproved are made manifest by the light : 
for, whatsover doth make manifest is light." John xiv, 26 : 
" The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost." John xvi, 
7-11 : "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come ; 
but, if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And, when 
He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteous- 
ness and of judgment — of sin, because they believe not 
on me — of righteousness, because I go to my Father — - 
of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged." 
It is, then, the Holy Ghost who enlightens those who are 
in darkness, convinces them of the error of their way, 



478 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

excites penitence and a desire to flee from the wrath to 
oome, and prompts to correspondent efforts. Usually, 
these efforts are unavailing, for a longer or shorter time, 
being made with more or less dependence on their intrinsic 
availability ; for, so long as man expects pardon because 
of his penitenee or reformation, just so long will his efforts 
prove ineffectual. True : he must be penitent, and he 
must reform, in order to his receiving pardon ; but, pardon 
will never be granted on account of penitence and reforma- 
tion. Convinced, at length, of this truth, the penitent 
sinner anxiously inquires, " What must I do to be saved ?" 
And, the Holy Ghost sets before his mind, with a clearness 
of revelation and a force of exhibition capable of exciting 
faith, or firm trust and confidence in Him, " Jesus Christ 
evidently orucified for him" — as the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world" — as "set forth, to be 
a propitiation, through faith in His blood ; to declare His 
righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past." 
Thus is the penitent instructed ; and he is thus enabled 
to " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, with a heart unto 
righteousness." And, this faith "justifies the ungodly." 
And, to this faith, he is wrought by the influence of the 
Holy Ghost. Simultaneously with justification, and coming 
through the same faith, is that change of moral nature, 
which is so great — so all-pervading as to be, in the sacred 
Scriptures, characterized as a being "born again" — 
" created, in Christ Jesus, to good works" — made a "new 
oreature." And, this change is operated by the Holy 
Ghost. John iii, 5-8 : " Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; and that 
which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. Marvel not that I 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 479 

said unto thee, 'ye must be born again.' The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither 
it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit." 
Romans xv, 16 : "That the offering up of the Gentiles 
might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Hoty Ghost." 
1 Corinthians vi, 11: "But ye are washed, but ye are 
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 2 Corinthians iii. 
17, 18 : "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. 
But, we all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the 
glory of the Lord, are changed, into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
Galatians v, 22, 23 : " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance." Titus iii, 5 : " He saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." 
Much might be added, to the above clear and strong 
exhibitions of the personal agency of the Holy Ghost, 
in the change of man's moral nature ; without which he 
cannot be a subject of the kingdom of Christ on earth, or 
share in the " inheritance of the saints in light." But, we 
consider what has been produced amply sufficient, as it 
clearly shows that " whosoever is led by the Spirit of God" 
— who yields himself up, submissively and heartily, to the 
guidance of the Holy Ghost — "is a son of God;" and, 
" if a son, then an heir of God and joint heir with Christ, 
to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven," for those " who are 
kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation." 
That the Holy Ghost authenticates the justification and 
conversion of the sinner, by sealing him with the impress 



480 THE HOLT GHOST ASD HIS OFFICES. 

of the Divine image — the broad seal of administrative 
authority — is sufficiently declared in Ephesians i, 13: 
"Ye are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" — 
Ephesians iv, 30: " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" — 
and 2 Cor. m, 18: "We all, with open face, beholding, as 
in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed, into the 
same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
of the Lord." Nor, is the fact, of his attesting these 
important changes, directly, to the justified and converted 
sinner himself, less clearly taught in the Sacred Oracles. 
Romans viii, 16: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are the children of God." Gal iv, 6 : 
" Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of 
His Son into your hearts, crying Abba! Father!" 

7. In regulating the internal affairs of the kingdom, 
into which he has translated the sinner, who has submitted 
to be led by Him, the Holy Ghost, 

(1.) Imparts all needful instruction, to the subjects of 
that kingdom. Not only has He, as the Inspirer of all 
revealed truth, given to those subjects general directions, 
by which their conduct is to be regulated on all ordinary 
occasions, but it is promised that, on extraordinary occa- 
sions, He will supply to each individual the counsel which 
his emergency may require. The mode of imparting this 
counsel, must, of course, be regulated by the circumstances 
of each case; and cannot, therefore, be reduced under 
any general rule of procedure. Sometimes, it is done by 
providential events, so strongly impressed on the imagina- 
tion and the heart, by an influence for which the subjects 
themselves are wholly unable to account, with a force 
which secures to them a degree of moral efficiency they 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 481 

do not usually possess. At other times, a single word, 

frequently, in itself, by no means pregnant with important 

significancy, is a center, to which are attracted feelings 

and reflections calculated to exercise vast influence upon 

character and destination. Frequently, there are motions 

Within us, which we can trace to no origin external to our 

own minds, and directly in opposition to our settled modes 

of thinking and feeling, but irresistibly commending them-. 

selves to the approval of our judgment, by their intrinsic 

propriety and manifestly useful tendency. In all these 

cases, we suppose it is the Holy Ghost, who makes upon 

us the impressions which tend to our moral improvement 

and eternal salvation. We think so, because we have 

assurance, on the highest authority, that He will afford 

such influences to the people of God who need them. 

Luke xii, 12: "The Holy Ghost will teach you in the 

same hour what ye ought to say." John xiv, 26 : " The 

Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father 

will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and 

bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have 

said unto you." John xvi, 13, 14: "When He, the Spirit of 

truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth; fo%He 

shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, 

that shall He speak ; and, He will show you things to 

eome. He shall glorify me ; for, He shall receive of mine 

and shall show it unto you." Ads xx, 23" : " The Holy 

Ghost witnesseth in every eity, saying that bonds and 

afflictions abide me." 1 Cor. ii, 9-13; "Eye hath not 

seen,, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 

of man the things which God hath prepared for them that 

love Him. But, God hath revealed them unto us by His 

Spirit; for, the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
3t 



482 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

things of God. For, what man knoweth the things of a 
man, save the spirit of a man, which is in him? Even so, 
the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things 
that are freely given to us of God. Which things we speak, 
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which 
the Holy Ghost teacheth." These passages of Scripture 
exhibit the Holy Ghost as both a public general Teacher 
of the Church, and as a special guide and instructor of the 
individuals constituting that Church. 

(2.) The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of the children 
of God — the subjects of Christ's kingdom — dwelling in 
them, as in a hallowed temple ; and, besides assuring them 
of their justification, their acceptance with God and their 
adoption as His children, He affords them succor in the 
time of temptation, prompts and inspires fervent and 
effectual prayer, in every time of need, sheds the love 
of God abroad in their hearts, and brings every imagina- 
tion of their thoughts into captivity to the obedience of 
Christ: so, that, "He lays the rough paths of peevish 
nature even, and opens in their breast a little heaven," of 
calmness, tranquillity and serenity; and, finally, He inspires 
and sustains in them a lively hope — a hope full of joy — 
full of glory; which takes hold on the inheritance, in 
heaven, " incorruptible, and undefiled and that fadeth not 
away." That He dwells in the hearts of saints, is clearly 
taught in the Divine word. 1 Cor* vi, 19: "Know ye 
not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, 
which is in you, which ye have of God?'' 2 Tim. i, 14: 
" That good thing which was committed to thee, keep, by 
the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us." The purpose for 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 483 

which He dwells in the saints, is, that He may afford 
them the aid and comfort which their situation may 
require. They are exposed to the hostility of foes, who 
are inveterate in their malignity and far too powerful to be 
successfully resisted by any power inherent in man. The 
Holy Ghost is in them, to defend them against these 
enemies; and, if they resist steadfastly, under His direc- 
tion and patronage, they shall come off "more than 
conquerors." Isaiah lix, 19: "When the enemy shall 
come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a 
standard against him." 1 Cor. x, 13 : " There hath no 
temptation taken you, but such as is common to men; 
but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
above that ye are able; but will, with the temptation, 
also make a way for your escape, that ye may be able to 
bear it." Thus, we see that the people of God are not 
exempted from temptation, sudden and overwhelming, 
when not successfully opposed; but, that God has given 
assurance, that, to those who "resist, steadfast in the 
faith," there shall be afforded needful aid, and that the 
agent, in supplying that aid; is the Holy Ghost; who, 
raising, against the proudest and mightiest of those who 
assault the people of God, the standard of the Messiah, 
will put them to flight, and crown the assailed with glorious 
victory. The Holy Ghost dwells in the hearts of God's 
people, to supply them with grace, whereby they may 
"grow up into Christ, in all things:" that, "having nour- 
ishment ministered," they may attain to " the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ," Rom. v, 5: "The 
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost 
given unto us." This love is the most efficient of moral 
influences, having a direct tendency to purify the "heart 



484 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

from all that would be offensive to the eye of that Holy 
Being who is its object, and to render him, who is animated 
by it, solicitous, above all things, to be conformed, in his 
entire character, to the excellencies of the Divine object 
of his supreme affection. He dwells in the hearts of the 
saints, to impart to them strength, for the performance of 
duty, however arduous; for the endurance of trials, how- 
ever severe, and for " patient continuance in well-doing," 
however protracted its term, however great the discourage- 
ments attendant on it. Ephes. iii, 16 : "Strengthened with 
might, by this Spirit, in the inner man." The indwelling 
Holy Ghost prompts to and inspires prayer. Under- 
standing the wants of those under His care, and knowing 
intimately the mind of God, He can, at all times, dictate 
the prayer that should be offered up; and, by His influ- 
ence upon the heart of the suppliant, can animate the 
prayer with requisite fervor. In this way, He makes in 
us, "intercession for us" — inspiring our prayers with His 
own energy, as well as directing them by His intelligence. 
Romans viii, 26, 27: "Likewise, the Spirit helpeth our 
infirmities; for, we know not what we should pray for as 
we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, 
with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that 
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the 
Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints 
according to the will of God " Ephesians ii, 18: "Through 
Him, we both" (Jews and Gentiles,) "have access, by one 
Spirit, unto the Father." Ephesians vi, 18: "Praying, 
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Jude 20 : 
" Praying in the Holy Ghost " The Holy Ghost, dwelling 
in the heart, by faith, is an earnest of future blessedness, 
and consequently the Inspirer of hope, full of joy, full of 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 485 

glory. 2 Cor. v, 5 : " Now, He that hath wrought us for 
the self-same thing is God, who hath given us the earnest 
of the Spirit." Ephes, i, 13, 14: "In whom" (Christ,) 
"also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that 
Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheri- 
tance, until the redemption of the purchased possession." 
Rom. v, 5: "Hope maketh not ashamed because the 
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy 
Ghost, which is given unto us." And, in this hope, so 
produced by the Holy Ghost, the children of God, 1 Peter 
i, 8, 9, are enabled to " rejoice with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory: receiving the end of their faith, even the 
salvation of their souls." This joy, in the Holy Ghost, in 
hope of the glory of God — in prospect and assurance of 
"an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away," not only exceeds all other joy, but its 
fullness is commensurate with the utmost capacity of man, 
in his present imperfect state. It is pure and elevated in 
its character, permanent and uncloying in its influence, 
and adequate to human capacity for enjoyment. It is, 
then, justly characterized as " unspeakable and full of 
glory." And, thus is the Holy Ghost the Comforter of 
those who constitute the Church or kingdom of Christ, by 
teaching them, succoring them, nourishing them, prompting 
and inspiring in them fervent and effectual prayer, and 
originating and maintaining in them a joyful hope of 
eternal blessedness with God, after this short, fitful scene 
of life shall have come to a close. And, well does He 
justify the application of the title, which is appropriated 
to Him! No other consolation is so rational, so accom- 
modated to all the varied scenes of life, so heart-filling, 
so enduring as that which He communicates. Nay, in 



486 THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 

comparison with this consolation, all other consolation is as 
nothing. 

8. Finally, the Holy Ghost is the medium of union and 
fellowship among the subjects of the Messiah's kingdom. 
It is His influence that "fashioneth their hearts alike" — 
that renders them of "one heart and of one mind" — that 
disposes them to " bear one another's burdens," to " weep 
with those that weep and to rejoice with those that do 
rejoice." His ardor kindles their hearts into mutual 
love, and the oil of His grace keeps the fire ever burning, 
with undiminished, even with still increasing flame. 
Ephesians iv, 2, 3 : " With all lowliness and meekness, 
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love : 
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the bond 
of peace. Philip, ii, 1-3 : " If there be, therefore, any 
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellow- 
ship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my 
joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being 
of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through 
strife or vainglory; but, in lowliness of mind, let each 
esteem other better than himself." We have before sug- 
gested — see the last preceding Discourse — that Christian 
union and fellowship may exist, though opinions, in regard 
to doctrines of minor importance, the ceremonials of 
religion and forms of ecclesiastical government may have 
divided the Church into any conceivable number of sects. 
It is evident, from the passages of Scripture we have just 
cited, that unanimity of opinion and community of interest 
and feeling were not deemed essential to this union and 
fellowship. For, where they exist, there can be no occa- 
sion for the exercise of meekness^ long-suffering and 
forbearance, which the apostle requires,, in order to the 



THE HOLY GHOST AND HIS OFFICES. 487 

H keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 
Where meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, gentleness 
and kindness characterize the intercourse of Christians, 
whether belonging to the same sect^ worshiping with the 
same ceremonials and governed by the same ecclesiastical 
rule or not, there will be found union of heart, fellowship 
of spirit, sympathy of feeling and mutual helpfulness 
towards each other's faith and joy. They will have one 
Lord, for their moral government, one faith, in order to 
their salvation, one baptism, whatever the mode of its 
administration, dedicating them to the service of God and 
the interest of His cause, and one hope of their calling to 
a common and an ineffably glorious inheritance in heaven. 
And, to this high and holy unity, they will have been 
wrought by the influence of the Holy Ghost. 



DISCOURSE XV. 

BEPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

God * * * * commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent. — Acts xrii, 30. 

In our six last Discourses, we have dwelt upon what 
God has done for the recovery of man from the ruin, in 
which he was involved by his original transgression. This 
we have represented as being absolutely effectual, so far 
as concerned the guilt of that transgression, and, conse- 
quently, so far as concerned the salvation of all who had 
not returned under the curse of the law, from which they 
were redeemed by the death of Christ; which they could 
do only by personal transgression. We also hinted our 
opinion that ample provision was made, in the death of 
Christ, for the recovery of personal offenders from under 
that curse ; but, that this provision was not to be absolutely 
and unconditionally available to any personal transgressor. 
If this opinion be correct, and we have no doubt of its 
correctness, it is of vast importance that we understand 
the terms upon which we may avail ourselves of this pro- 
vision, so as to secure our salvation. The suspending of 
our salvation upon the condition of our coming to the 
terms upon which it is offered, no more detracts from the 
absolute benevolence of the Giver, nor any more infers 

' J 488 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 489 

merit in him who complies with the terms proposed, than 
does compliance with the terms, on which a gratuity is 
offered to a beggar or a pauper, entitle him to the benefit 
conferred, or detract from the simple benevolence of him 
who conferred the benefit. And, this is the more strikingly 
the case, inasmuch as both the disposition and the power 
to comply with the stipulated terms, are, in the instance 
of man's salvation, the result of influences exerted upon 
man by Him who offers the salvation and prescribes the 
terms on which it must be received. If God did not "work 
in man, to will and to do of His good pleasure," man 
would not, and, indeed, could not "work out his own 
salvation," by coming to the terms on which it is offered. 
There are two terms stipulated, with which the sinner, 
where the Gospel-message is heard, must comply, in order 
to his salvation. Indeed, the spirit of these requirements 
must be complied with by all men everywhere, in order to 
their salvation; though, from the fact of their not being 
instructed in the matter, they may not be able to render a 
literal compliance with them. These terms are repentance 
toward God, and faith toivard our Lord Jesus Christ. 
The former of these, is not to be regarded in the light 
of a condition of salvation, but as a morat fitness to receive 
it. Strictly speaking, there is only one condition of justi- 
fication — that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, the 
sinner needs to be prepared by repentance toward God, both 
for the exercise of that faith, and to receive the justifica- 
tion, of which that faith is the condition. The whole tenor 
of New Testament teaching goes to represent repentance 
as not only important in, but indispensable to, the sinner's 
coming to salvation. It was the first requirement in the 
preaching of, not only John the Baptist, but of Christ 



490 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

Himself. It was prominent, if not first, in the preaching 
of St. Peter, after the Holy Ghost came upon him and 
the other apostles, on the day of Pentecost. St. Paul 
represents it as, equally with faith toward our Lord Jesus 
Christ, a theme of his constant preaching, both to Jews 
and Gentiles. And, our Saviour, to show its vast impor- 
tance — nay, its indispensable necessity, in the business 
of salvation, solemnly declares to His hearers, that except 
they would repent, they should perish. We conceive, then, 
that we do not err in placing a Discourse on this subject 
in a series designed to be fundamental in their character. 
We consider repentance as indispensable to the salvation 
of a personal transgressor, as was the death of Christ 
itself, though on wholly different grounds. The former is 
necessary on the ground of moral fitness — implying no 
merit in the performer, no claim, on the score of obli- 
gation, to the salvation, to the obtaining of which it is 
indispensable : whereas, the latter meets and satisfies the 
claims of violated law and outraged authority, with a merit 
adequate to those claims, and to the dignity of that 
authority. The former is a simple performance of incum- 
bent duty — the latter is a voluntary intervention of a 
disinterested party, prompted by benevolence. The 
vicarious death of Christ, for man's redemption, entitles 
Him to universal and eternal praise — not to repent, infers 
eternal infamy to the sinner. Though, then, repentance 
and the death of Christ are both indispensable to the 
salvation of the personal transgressor, the former shares 
none of the glory due to the latter on account of that 
salvation. As, therefore, repentance toward God is indis- 
pensable to the salvation of personal transgressors, let us, 
who all belong to this description of persons, attend, with 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 491 

becoming concern, to the discussion of a theme so vitally 
important to us. We shall, 

I. Consider some things that are necessarily presupposed 
by repentance toward God ; 

II. Endeavor to ascertain the nature of the repentance 
required in the text ; and, 

III. Attempt to ascertain the purposes to be accom- 
plished by repentance in the economy of salvation. 

I. We are to consider some things that are necessarily 
presupposed by repentance toward God ; and, 

1. Moral ivrong is presupposed by repentance. As, 
therefore, "all men everywhere" are commanded to 
repent, all men everywhere are held to be guilty of moral 
wrong. Moral wrong supposes obligation to do, or to refrain 
from doing ; and this obligation implies moral agency on 
the part of him who lies under such obligation, and an 
authority which rightfully imposes that obligation. On a 
former occasion, we contemplated God as the Creator of 
man ; as having, therefore, the most unquestionable right 
to the use of man, in the employment of all the capabili- 
ties, physical, mental and moral, with which He endued 
him. The principle of this right, we observed, is uni- 
versally recognized among men ; and, if the invention or 
construction of any valuable operative entitles the inventor 
or constructor to a right of use, in such operative, how 
much more must creation confer that right, since, not only 
is the operative invented and constructed, in the instance 
of creation, but the materials employed and the laws 
applied, in its invention and construction, are produced ? 
Of the authority of God over man, then, no question can 
exist. But, is man a moral agent, capable, as such, of 
moral obligation ? Intelligence and power to choose, in 



492 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

any given case, without constraint of any kind, we have 
considered necessary to moral agency ; and, these, we 
have ascribed to man. That man has intelligence, to 
discern between right and wrong in morals, none will 
deny. And, that he has freedom, entire freedom of 
choice, appears to us absolutely necessary to his moral 
agency, without which he would be incapable of responsi- 
bility, of rewards or of punishments. The extent of man's 
obligation to God, is commensurate with his moral capa- 
bility. To extend the obligation a hair's breadth beyond 
this measure, would be unjust to man — to suppose that 
obligation less than that measure, would derogate from 
the right of God to the use of His creature in the employ- 
ment of all his capabilities. Accordingly, we find all the 
moral capabilities of man put in requisition for the service 
of God, in such requirements as these : " Glorify God, in 
your body and in your spirit, which are God's" — "whether 
ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of 
God." " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy 
heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy strength." In one word, man is required to 
devote himself to the service of God. Not to do this, is 
moral wrong — a violation of moral obligation — a sin 
against God. The text supposes that all men are involved 
in this moral wrong ; inasmuch as it commands all men 
everywhere to repent A very slight acquaintance with 
the moral history of mankind, in all ages and in all coun- 
tries, will abundantly verify this melancholy supposition. 
The Divine scrutiny could find not a single exception ; 
for, when the great Heart-searcher "looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any 
that did understand, that did seek God," He saw that 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 493 

" every one of them was gone back ;" that " they were 
altogether become filthy :" that " there was none that did 
good — no, not one." Hence, St. John declares that "if 
we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and 
His word is not in us." Many, there may be, who have, 
all their lifetime, shunned, perhaps abhorred, those sins 
which infer disgrace in the eyes of men, in whose mouth 
the boast of the Pharisee would be simple truth, who 
never perpetrated murder, fraud, or uncleanness, or 
debasing excess in either eating or drinking : who have 
maintained a decent respect for the forms of religion, and 
an honorable and a courteous bearing towards their fellow- 
men, of all ranks and conditions. But, where has there 
ever been found the individual, of Adam's perverted race, 
who has always " loved God with all his heart, soul, mind 
and strength?" — that has always acted with an "eye 
single to the glory of God ? " And, yet, if, though but 
for a single moment, a man has been zv anting in these 
moral characteristics, he is guilty of moral wrong of the 
deepest dye. He has violated the highest and most 
sacred obligation that ever was or could be imposed upon 
a moral agent. If filial irreverence and disobedience 
justly shock the sensibility of the right-hearted, and if 
the most gloomy prognostics of future delinquency and 
evil fortune are warranted, in regard to children who dis- 
play such irreverence and disobedience, what shall be said 
of the guilt and danger of tkose who disregard the obliga- 
tion they are under to their Creator, whose paternal claims 
are as much more important than those of a " father of 
our flesh," as a cause is more important than an instrument 
He, Himself, labors to convince his creatures of their 
iniquity, by this very mode of reasoning. He says : " A 



494 EEPENTANCE TOWARD <3GD. 

son honoreth his father — if, then, I be a Father, where is 
mine honor?" We see not how the conclusion can be 
evaded, that he who withholds what God, his Creator, 
requires of him, is guilty of moral wrong ; or, how it can 
be possible for any sober-minded man to deny that " all 
men every where" have done this; and, that, consequently, 
"all have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
God." 

2. Repentance toward God presupposes a conviction, 
on the part of him who repents, of the moral wrong of 
which he has been guilty. There is much more implied 
in this conviction than a single assent of the mind to the 
truth of the proposition that "all have sinned." This 
assent is given, in thousands of instances, with quite as 
much indifference, and with as little moral effect as accom- 
pany acquiescence in the most unimportant matters of 
intelligence that are communicated to the mind on any 
subject whatever. The conviction, which is presupposed 
by repentance, recognizes the dignity of the authority 
which has been insulted by the moral wrong committed — 
the sacredness of the obligation which was violated by it 
— the justice of the requirement disregarded in its per- 
petration, and the consequent heinousness of the guilt 
incurred by it. And, all this is no barren generality, but 
is made a matter of individual and personal accusation 
against the repenting sinner, by this conviction. Hence, 
where this conviction is established in the mind, insensi- 
bility and indifference find no place. The whole soul is 
aroused. Alarm, apprehension, anxiety, and, especially 
sorrow — heart-rending, soul-subduing sorrow — are excited. 
The convicted sinner exclaims, in the anguish of these 
mingled emotions, " 0, wretched man that I am ! Who 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 495 

shall deliver me from the body of this death !" " God be 
merciful to me, a sinner ! " 

This conviction is not, however, the result of reasonings 
upon moral fitness, however exactly it may, when estab- 
lished in the mind, accord to the justest appreciation of 
that fitness. Were the mind unperverted and unblinded, 
its reasoning, upon moral fitness, would inevitably result 
in such a conviction. But, such, alas ! is not the fact 
The mind is perverted, bewildered and blinded, by the 
stultifying influence of sin : so, that, while under con- 
demnation by the law, and, while " dead in trespasses and 
sins," the sinner, as did Pharasaic Saul of Tarsus, very 
often exults in the testimony of " a good conscience," and 
glories in the persuasion that "he is alive" — alive to God, 
spiritually, morally alive ! " The light that is in him being 
darkness" he sees imperfectly the state of his own heart, 
and the spirit of the Divine law ; and, self-love, taking 
advantage of the imperfection of the medium through 
which he contemplates these important objects of specula- 
tion, exhibits before him a view of loth as unjust as it is 
flattering to himself. A purer, brighter light, than glows 
in the human mind, must be thrown upon these subjects, 
ere they can be seen in their true character by the sinner. 
A measure of that light is afforded to every man — a 
measure, too, sufficient, if improved, to lead to the dis- 
covery of truth, in these important matters. But, the 
first influence of this light is always painful ; and, too 
often, men " love darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds are evil," and, therefore, exclude it from their 
minds, before it has sufficiently illuminated them to show 
the revolting foulness of that " cage of unclean birds," that 
loathsome sepulchre — a corrupt heart — a heart estranged 



496 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

from God. When, however, the light imparted is freely 
admitted into the mind, and when the eyes of the under- 
standing, opened to receive its revelations, are turned 
upon the purity, breadth and high authority of the " com- 
mandment" — the law of God — when, moreover, the 
character of the sinner is brought into comparison with 
the requirements of that law, conviction of moral wrong 
follows, with all the force of demonstration, and with all 
the astounding influence of judicial condemnation. All 
this is accomplished by that Divine Spirit, who " reproves," 
or convinces, " the world of sin, of righteousness and of 
judgment." The instrumentality, usually employed by 
Him, is the " Word of God, which is quick and powerful, 
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the 
joints and marrow ; and is a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart." But, in this important work, 
the Holy Spirit is restrained to no special instrumentality, 
nor, indeed, to any instrumentality whatever. He can, 
and, we think it certain, He often does, work conviction 
of sin in the mind, without the employment of any means 
— by direct impressions made upon the mind and the 
heart of the sinner. But, whether the operation is by 
direct influence, by extraordinary instrumentality or by 
the influence of the Divine Word, the result is substantially 
the same — the sinner is convicted, in his own conscience, 
of sin against God. Sin against God is filial irreverence 
and disobedience — is ingratitude, to an infinitely kind 
Benefactor — is rebellion, against the just authority and 
righteous government of the Universal Sovereign ! No 
other crime could equal this in magnitude and aggravation 
of circumstances — no other guilt could equal the guilt of 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 497 

this enormity ; and, in the light of this conviction, it is 
clearly seen that no punishment can possibly exceed the 
demerit of this monstrous and aggravated criminality. 

3. Repentance toward God presupposes sorrow — -sorrow 
for having offended God, called in Scripture godly sorrow. 
The sinner is often sorry that he has involved himself in 
difficulties, subjected himself to disgrace among men and 
exposed himself to danger, whether in time or eternity, 
by his sinful courses* But, sorrow, on account of any of 
these consequences of his sin, does not dispose the sinner 
to repentance — is not sorrow for having sinned, is not 
sorrow toward God — is not godly sorrow. This sorrow is 
wholly selfish in its character, and regards the conse- 
quences of sin, and not the sin itself. Godly sorrow, on 
the contrary, has chief respect to the moral turpitude of 
sin, and its offensive character in the sight of God. The 
infinitely holy character of God, His benevolence to man, 
and the justice of His claims upon the service of man, as, 
well as the righteousness of the service required of man,, 
enter largely into this sorrow, indeed, they are its chief 
ingredients. The sinner contrasts his own moral impurity 
with the holiness of God, and abhors himself — he places 
his disregard of God, and of His just claims upon him in 
the light of the Divine benevolence, so wonderfully mani- 
fested, especially in the " gift of His Son, to redeem man 
from under the curse of the law," and a sense of his 
ingratitude, so black, so base, overwhelms him with shame 
and confusion — he contemplates himself as an irreverent 
and a refractory son,, to a wise, a kind and a most venera- 
ble father, and as a rebel against the just authority of the 
most righteous and beneficent government, and is filled 
with remorse and self-condemnation; and all this excites 

32 



4'98 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

in him a sorrow as bitter as any of which the human 
bosom is susceptible. He grieves that he has exhibited 
himself in a character so utterly unworthy his high position 
as a rational and moral being — that he has offended the 
wisest, the greatest and the best of beings by his self-degra- 
dation and rebellion against rightful authority, that he has 
shown himself so heartlessly ungrateful to One, whose 
merciful kindness has been so great, so long-suffering 
towards him. Sorrow, like this, cannot be inoperative. 
And, its operation will be to better the moral condition 
of those who are under its influence. 

We have said that this godly sorrow is presupposed by 
repentance toward God. We are not ignorant that many 
speak of godly sorrow as but another name for repentance; 
and that more, we might say most, of those who write or 
speak of repentance toward God, represent godly sorrow 
as a part of repentance. Now, unless cause and effect are 
identical — unless the agent and his zvor7c be the same thing; 
or, unless St. Paul either misunderstood or misrepresented 
the matter, godly sorrow is, neither in whole nor in part, 
the repentance required in the Gospel; for, he expressly 
declares that "godly sorrow worketh repentance unto 
salvation, not to be repented of." If, then, godly sorrow 
worketh repentance, that sorrow is presupposed by repent- 
ance, just as any other agency is presupposed by its 
proper effect. Nor, is the distinction here maintained, 
between godly sorrow and repentance, important solely 
because it rescues a Scriptural truth from the error in 
which it has been involved, but because very serious mis- 
takes may, and, we fear, have resulted from this error. 
Repentance is not a state of the affections merely, but a 
modification of the moral character, induced by a certain 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 499 

state of the affections. And, it being much easier to err 
in regard to the character of a mental state, than it is in 
regard to a modification of moral character, error, in regard 
to repentance, would be much more probable were godly- 
sorrow repentance, than, if, as is the case, repentance is a 
modification of moral character, induced by godly sorrow. 
For instance : a man has disgraced himself, in the estima- 
tion of his fellow-men, by some sin, say theft; and he is 
heartily sorry that he has so disgraced himself Now, as 
sin is the occasion of his disgrace, is he not in much 
danger of supposing that, while he is really sorrowing on 
account of his disgrace, he is sorrowing for the sin which 
produced that disgrace? And, if .he confound godly 
sorrow and repentance, will he not conclude that he has 
repented, inasmuch as he has been sorry for the disgrace 
brought upon him by his sin? But, could he fall into a 
like error, if repentance be understood by him to be, not 
sorrow, but the moral results of godly sorrow, in the 
modification of his moral character? We think it would 
be much more difficult to err in the latter than in the 
former case. We shall, 

II. Endeavor to ascertain the nature of the repentance 
required in the text. 

Repentance being, as we have seen, the product of godly 
sorrow, the best method of ascertaining its nature, is, we 
conceive, to inquire what effects godly sorrow will produce 
upon the moral character of one in whom its influence 
is predominant. We have represented godly sorrow as 
arising from a just appreciation of the odious nature of 
sin itself, rather than from a regard to the pernicious 
influence it exerts upon our personal condition, whether 
in time or in eternity; and, as being mainly produced by 



500 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

a view of unworthy conduct towards God, the Father, 
Benefactor and rightful Sovereign of man. Such being 
the causes of godly sorrow, it is calculated, 

1. To produce intense haired of sin, no matter what its 
form, or the estimation in which it is held by the world. 
In the case of him, who is really sorry that he has sinned, it 
is sufficient to be convinced that any state of the affections, 
any pursuit of pleasure, wealth or fame, any association is 
sinful, to inspire him with utter repugnance to it. It may 
exhibit to the eye of sense,, or passion, or pride, a thousand 
charms, a thousand fascinations — it may have all the 
beauty and majesty, with which Milton has imagined its 
face and bust; but, godly sorrow fails not to detect the 
snaky folds, which lurk amid the mazes of drapery, by 
which they are attempted to be concealed; and loathing 
and abhorrence are aroused, against the fair-seeming 
object. Whatever pretensions to regard sin may put 
forward, the brand of infamy can be seen upon it, by the 
eye of godly sorrow. It is rebellion against God — it is 
ingratitude toward Him — it is moral degradation and 
corruption in him who cherishes it in his bosom ! Hence, 
it is hated, loathed, abhorred. 

2. Godly sorrow induces humility. Humility is, by no 
means identical with meanness, notwithstanding they are 
often confounded with each other. Humility is the esti- 
mate formed by a man of himself, when he is sensible 
that there is, in his moral state, that which is derogatory 
to his dignity. Meanness is a tendency to low, unworthy 
and wicked conduct; and may, and very often does, consist 
with pride and high pretensions. Humility is one of the 
surest safeguards against meanness; as it proceeds from a 
high appreciation of moral purity and integrity. Godly 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 501 

sorrow is calculated to produce this humility; because it 
derives its existence from a high estimate of moral obli- 
gation, and from a conviction that he, in whom it has been 
excited, has been shamefully recreant to that obligation. 
How can he fail to be humble, who concedes the justness 
of the claims which God has upon him, and who is con- 
scious of utter delinquency in regard to those claims? 
What could be more humiliating than a conviction, in his 
own conscience, that, instead of the reverence and honor, 
which he was most sacredly obliged to render to God, his 
Creator, he has displayed, toward Him, indifference, 
neglect, contempt and disobedience: that, instead of the 
gratitude, love and devotion which were due from him to 
God, his bounteous Benefactor, he has forgotten Him, even 
while reveling in the profusion of His bounties, and has 
preferred to Him, the vilest and worst of his own enemies, 
who were also the enemies of God: that, he has been 
refractory to and rebellious against the rightful authority 
and righteous government of God, his Sovereign! All 
high pretension must cower before convictions of this kind, 
before a sorrow so excited. Like the truly penitent pub- 
lican, he will be so much abashed, so abased in his own 
eyes, that " he will not so much as lift up his eyes unto 
heaven,'' but, smiting upon his breast, as the natural 
expression of an anguish too bitter for language to utter, 
will exclaim : " God be merciful to me, a sinner ! " This 
is the only plea his humble view of himself will allow him 
to present before the God whom he has offended. He 
claims no favor on the ground of right — because he has 
deserved it, or because of the dignity of his nature. 
Mercy, to his misery— mercy to him, though a sinner- — 
mercy to him as a sinner is his plea. What could be 



502 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

conceived more intensely humble, more utterly self- 
abased! In like manner, will godly sorrow ever humble 
those who are subject to its influence. 

3. Godly sorrow prompts to a frank, an unreserved 
confession of sin. He, who is under its influence, dis- 
guises no part of the criminality of his offenses, either to 
himself or to the God against whom those offenses have 
been perpetrated. He seeks no extenuation, attempts no 
palliation of his sins. He finds for them no apology, in 
the corrupt tendencies of his own carnal nature, in the 
example of any number or description of his fellow-sinners 
or in the force of the temptations by which he was solicited 
to their commission. He stands as alone before God; 
and contemplates his sins in their intrinsic character. 
Hence, his confessions are unqualified, explicit and full ; 
taking in the goodness, the justice and the purity of the 
law he has transgressed, the high and rightful authority 
he has insulted, the folly, iniquity and perverseness of his 
own character, in the perpetration of his offenses. "I 
have sinned I" " I have done wickedly !" " Against 
Thee — Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in 
Thy sight !" Such are the outbursts of frank confession, 
with which the true penitent pleads to the charge which 
is brought against him by the Divine law. This confession 
is made, not to sinners like himself, but to the Pure and 
Holy Being, whom he has offended by his transgressions. 
It is true, that, under the emblematical Levitical system, 
which was intended as a " schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ," confession was directed to be made before the 
Priest, who was to offer an atonement in behalf of the 
penitent ; but, no such provision is to be found in the 
New Testament ; as, under the Gospel dispensation there 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 503 

is " no more offering for sin," nor any other Priest than 
He, "who has passed into the heavens, and is at the 
right-hand of God, there to appear before God for us." 
He is both the sacrifice and the Priest ; and, before Him, 
with sole trust in His " sacrifice of Himself once for all," 
confession of sin is to be made unto God. Nothing could 
be more entirely gratuitous, nay more utterly at variance 
with the whole tenor of New Testament teaching than the 
claim of priestly authority in the Christian ministry ; and, 
consequently, of the obligation of the laity to auricular 
confession to that ministry. Neither precept nor example 
can be found in the whole New Testament, for either the one 
or the other ; and nothing could be more explicitly settled 
than that, under the Gospel dispensation, there is no other 
priest than He, who " needed not daily to offer for sins," 
but, who, " by one offering, hath perfected forever them 
that are sanctified." We consider auricular private con- 
fession, to the priest, as, at once, a most pernicious error, 
and the strongest prop of the system of errors to which it 
belongs. It holds the deluded votaries of that system in 
a moral bondage which cannot be equaled by any other 
found among men. It deludes men into a dependence, 
for help and salvation, on those in whom there is no help, 
no power to save ; and it robs the Great High Priest, 
u who ever liveth, to make intercession for man," of one 
of the most sacred functions of His office. We scruple 
not to say that this provision would vitiate any system 
of Christian economy in which it should be admitted. 
Can any suppose that the injunction to Christians, to 
"confess their faults one to another, and pray one for 
another," is any authority for auricular confession to the 
priest ? Who can fail to perceive that, according to this 



504 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

precept, the priest is equally obliged to confess to his 
penitent, as the penitent is to confess to him? The duty 
of confession is clearly reciprocal, as is the intercession 
based upon it. The fact is, this requirement has no 
reference to the confession of sins in general, but of social 
faults ; and, it proceeds on precisely the same principle 
as does the requirement, that we should confess our sins 
to God : viz., that the offender owes it to the offended to 
confess to him the wrong which he has done him. This, 
genuine sorrow, for having offended, will always prompt 
the offender to do ; and, this, sorrow for having sinned, 
will not fail to induce the penitent sinner to do. 

4. Godly sorrow will work reformation of life, wherever 
it is allowed to have its proper influence. Neglected 
duties will be performed with earnest diligence — the 
hitherto neglected Bible will be read, with a view to 
understand its teachings, its requirements, its warnings, 
and its invitations. It will be read, with a close applica- 
tion to the condition of the penitent himself. It will be 
read as an authoritative directory, by which the whole life 
is to be regulated. The instituted means of grace and 
ordinances of religion will no longer be neglected, nor 
attended upon with a view to social propriety merely, but 
that the word preached, the ordinances ministered, and 
the means used may be instrumental in the salvation of 
the soul, and in promoting the glory of God. Prayer, 
especially, will be a frequent, fervent and persevering 
exercise, of him, whose heart is moved by godly sorrow. 
He will not only join with others, whether in the Church 
or in the family circle, in offering up stated prayers ; but, 
he will often retire into secret, with no eye of man upon 
him, no human ear to hear his supplication, and will there 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 505 

pour out his earnest petitions into the ear of that God 
whom his iniquities have so grievously offended. The 
reformation of life, effected by godly sorrow, will extend 
far beyond a mere attention to the duties of religion. It 
will be seen in an entire abandonment of the courses of 
iniquity in which the penitent was formerly engaged. 
The profane will cease from his blasphemy — the licentious 
will renounce his debauchery — the unjust will cease to 
defraud or oppress his neighbor — and the violent man 
will no longer exercise cruelty over those in his power. 
The truly penitent will cease, carefully " cease to do evil,'* 
to the utmost extent of his ability, and, at any cost or any 
sacrifice. The right hand will be cut off, the right eye 
will be plucked out — sins of pleasure, for profit or for 
ambition, will be abandoned. And, there will now be a 
diligent endeavor to "learn the way of righteousness"—-- 
to "learn to do well." Ethics will now be studied, not 
merely as an interesting system of moral science, but as a 
supreme rule of life. The disposition of the penitent, in 
this respect, is clearly indicated by Saul of Tarsus, when 
he was brought, through conviction of his sinfulness, to 
experience godly sorrow. Convinced that Jesus was the 
Christ, and that he had been in rebellion against Him, he 
inquires, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " He 
"confers not with flesh and blood" — he "leans not to his 
own understanding," liberally- cultivated though it had 
been by the instructions of illustrious doctors of the law; 
but, with child-like simplicity and docility, looks up, for 
"instruction in righteousness," to the Great Teacher Him- 
self, ready to follow His guidance, ready to obey His 
orders. And, such is the disposition, wrought by godly 
sorrow, in the heart of every true penitent. 



506 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

But, the reformation effected, in this stage of religious 
progress, however honestly and earnestly endeavored, will 
be found to be utterly inadequate to the sense of duty 
which is awakened in the conscience of the penitent. He 
will realize the experience of the same Saul of Tarsus, 
who said : " With my mind, I serve the law of God, but 
with my flesh, the law of sin — the good that I would, I 
do not, and the evil which I would not, that I do." Nay, 
he will be almost certain to feel that not only is his 
endeavor to reform abortive, but that his efforts to do so, 
only serve to entangle him the more in the meshes of the 
snare, in which he is taken captive, and to sink him the 
deeper, in the horrible pit of corruption, into which he had 
plunged himself. This estimate, of the result of his 
efforts, is not the true one. He feels thus, because he is 
more and more wakeful and sensible to his true moral 
state. The truth, however, is that his efforts are availing 
— are achieving a reformation of life — are preparing him 
for birth into a new life, by the power of the Spirit of all 
grace. He is, indeed, in the pangs of that birth, and the 
hour of his spiritual nativity is near at hand. 

5. Godly sorrow prompts to restitution or compensation, 
in all the instances in which the sins of the penitent have 
wronged or injured any other being ; and, to the utmost 
of his ability, the penitent will make such restitution or 
compensation. This is comparatively easy of accomplish- 
ment where the wrong to be compensated concerns the 
property or character of a fellow-creature. In the one 
ease, if the penitent have the means, he can indemnify 
his wronged fellow-creature, by returning to him a full 
equivalent for the injury he had done to him — in the 
other, he can exonerate the character of his neighbor from 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 507 

the false and injurious imputations or insinuations, by which 
he had calumniated his reputation. And, these things, 
the true penitent will do, at the sacrifice, if necessary, of 
all that he possesses, and however mortifying and humili- 
ating it may be to him to acknowledge himself to have 
been the traducer and slanderer of his neighbor. Equally 
will he consider it his duty, and equally will he strive to 
heal the wounds which he has unrighteously inflicted, 
whether carelessly or through design, upon the sensibilities 
of a fellow-creature. He will not shrink from a frank 
acknowledgment, publicly or privately, of the injury so 
inflicted, nor to solicit the pardon of the offended or 
aggrieved party. But, when the wrong done has been in 
the leading of the innocent into crime, in debauching the 
moral principle, or in establishing habits of vice in a fel- 
low-creature, how difficult, how impossible often, it will be 
found to undo the fatal mischief, to repair the incalculable 
injury so inflicted ! Still : godly sorrow will induce a 
strenuous and persevering effort to accomplish a task of 
so transcendent importance. These efforts will often fail 
of success ; and, when they do, what language can express 
the anguish of the penitent, when he sees the hopeless- 
ness of reclaiming to virtue a fellow-creature, whom he 
had betrayed into vice, whom he had initiated in the path 
of ruin ! What reflection could be more bitter, more 
soul-piercing than that of having been the agent in 
debauching an immortal spirit, and entering it upon a 
course that is leading it down to eternal woe ? How 
rings the death-wail of that soul, in the tortured ear of 
the penitent, hopeless of reclaiming it from that course 
of ruin into which he was its leader ! The anticipated 
groans of the horrible pit, rising in complaints against him^ 



508 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

for having betrayed that soul to damnation, wring his soui 
with agony. Ah ! it is a fearful thing to poison souls 
with vice — to open to them the gates of eternal perdi- 
tion ! Thus, the penitent, however honestly and diligently 
he may strive to do so, may often fail of making com- 
pensation for the wrong he has done to his fellow-creatures 
by his sins. But, when he feels the obligation to render 
such compensation to God, for the wrong done to Him by 
sin, he is instantty aware that he has no power to do 
anything of the kind. His language is, " I have sinned ! 
What shall I do unto Thee, 0, Thou Preserver of men ? 
Moral virtue is my simple duty, and its most exact per- 
formance can, therefore, compensate for no wrong heretofore 
committed against Thee ! Worship, pure and devout as 
that offered by the hosts of heaven, would not exceed Thy 
just due ; and, therefore, it could be no compensation to 
Thee for my wrongs toward Thee ! All I am, all I have, 
all I can do, are due to Thee ; and, consequently, from 
none of these can I offer Thee any compensation for the 
wrongs done Thee by my sins !" Such is the hopeless 
conviction of the penitent, with relation to his rendering 
to God the compensation due to Him, for the wrong per- 
petrated against Him by sin. Self-despair is the final 
result of the operations of godly sorrow — is the con- 
summation of repentance towards God. 

We have ascribed repentance to the operation of godly 
sorrow alone; not that this is the only emotion in the 
mind of the true penitent. It is far from being the only 
one : — far from being the only allowable, truly evangelical 
emotion that operates there. Self-love, when subordinate 
to the love and the service of God, is not only innocent 
but laudable. It was planted in the human soul, by an 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 509 

infinitely wise Creator, for very important purposes. It 
was appealed to, while man was yet in a state of innocence 
and rectitude, as of high conservative capability and 
tendency. It was appealed to, as a guarantee to the 
claims of the law of probation. Why, else, is the 
announcement made, to the first human pair, that in the 
day they should eat of the interdicted fruit, they should 
surely die? To the penitent, convinced of sin, in how 
many forms is self-love rendered a source of the most 
painful emotions I He beholds himself degraded, from the 
proper dignity of a moral being, into a slave of sin — 
how inexpressibly humiliating! The favor and the peace 
of God, without which tranquillity and assured safety are 
utterly impracticable, have been alienated by his sin — 
how unspeakably disquieting! Heaven, with all its joys 
and all its glories, have been forfeited by transgression — 
how deeply to be regretted and deplored! Hell, with all 
its pains and horrors, deserved, threatened moving from 
beneath to meet the sinner at his coming — how alarming! 
How terrible! Degraded, enslaved, disquieted, heaven 
lost and hell in imminent prospect, what wonder that the 
penitent exclaims : Ci What must I do to be saved ? " " 0, 
wretched man, that I am ! Who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" "God be merciful to me, a 
sinner I" " Lord save, or I perish ! " " Oh, that I knew 
where I might find Him ! that I might come even to His 
3eat. I would order my cause before Him. I would fill 
my mouth with arguments." There is no sorrow more 
overwhelming; no anguish more piercing; no agony more 
racking to the soul, than that which the awakened sinner 
experiences, when contemplating the complicated evils 
which he has brought upon himself, by the sins of which 



510 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

his conscience convicts him. He loathes and abhors him- 
self, for his degradation and defilement — the law of God 
thunders its curses in his ear — the purity, the justice 
and the majesty, the truth, the wisdom and the power, the 
omnipresence, the eternity and even the goodness of God 
are seen marshalled, in terrible array, against him, for his 
rebellion and his ingratitude. Heavenly joys, for which 
he was created, and, in absence of which, existence will be 
an eternal calamity, has been bartered off for the evanes- 
cent and unsatisfying pleasures of sin; and hell, with 
its undying worm, its unquenchable fire, unutterable 
groans — hell, prepared, not for man, but for the Devil 
and his angels, awaits him, to swallow him up, in fathom- 
less, interminable perdition. Above all, and, indeed, 
inferring all the rest, he sees written, with lurid characters, 
in the book of doom, " Banishment from God ! Destruc- 
tion from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His 
power ! * This is, indeed, a " wretched state of deep 
despair" — a destiny of unutterable woe ! Well may the 
awakened sinner struggle and agonize for deliverance 
from such painful circumstances — such a horrible doom! 
Well may he cry mightily to God for help and salvation ! 
And, thus will the penitent sinner ever be affected; not- 
withstanding this self-directed sorrow belongs not to true 
repentance, nor produces repentance towards God. He 
will be thus affected, because the same conviction of sin 
which excites godly sorrow, exhibits to him the wretched- 
ness of his condition, and the fearful destiny which awaits 
him, as the punishment of the sins, by which he has 
offended God, and for which he " sorrows after a godly 
sort" While, therefore, he evangelically repents towards 
God, for his sins, he earnestly seeks deliverance from the 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD- 511 

horrible doom to which they have consigned him. Seek- 
ing this deliverance, and repentance are entirely distinct 
in their nature, and in the emotions from which they 
spring; nevertheless, wherever the latter is found, the 
former is certain to be found also — one having regard to 
God and His slighted, resisted claims — the other, to the 
fearful consequences incurred by slighting and resisting 
those claims, and thereby offending God, and rendering 
Him an enemy. We shall, 

III. Attempt to ascertain the purposes to be accomplished 
by this repentance, in the economy of salvation. We think 
there are two purposes to be accomplished by repentance, 
both of great importance in the economy of salvation; 
* To induce, in the mind of the sinner, a firm and decided 
persuasion that he cannot, by the utmost and the best- 
directed exertion of his own proper capabilities, achieve his 
own salvation — and, to prepare him to embrace the terms 
on which alone God has proffered salvation to offending 
mankind.' We have, to some extent, and, we think, 
unavoidably, anticipated what we have to say in regard to 
both these purposes. Nevertheless, we deem it proper to 
consider them more particularly; and, 

1. It is the purpose of repentance toward God to induce-, 
in the mind of the sinner, a firm and decided persuasion 
that he cannot, by the utmost and the best-directed exertion 
of his oivn proper capabilities, achieve his own salvation. 
The natural man has too little concern about his salvation 
to give himself much trouble in ascertaining by what 
means it is to be secured. Either he deems himself, as 
did Saul of Tarsus, already in a state of safety — "alive;" 
or, he imagines that, at any time, when he shall think it 
necessary, he can turn from his evil courses, and win the 



512 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

Divine favor, by penitence and prayer. But, when " the 
commandment" — the law of God — "comes," — is mani- 
fested to his understanding and conscience, in its purity, 
its breadth of requirement, its inflexibility, its tremendous 
sanctions and its infinite authority; and, when he sees 
himself, in the light of that law, a mass of loathsome 
defilement, a manifold transgressor, exposed to the curse 
of the law, and guilty of rebellion against the infinite 
Sovereign, he finds that he is u dead in trespasses and 
sins." And, it now becomes with him a question of 
deepest interest, how he may be saved. He clings to 
the persuasion he has long entertained, that, through the 
mercy of God, and the merits of Christ, he can save 
himself by repentance. And, he engages in the work, 
with a sincerity and an earnestness corresponding to the 
depth of his sorrow for having offended God, and to the 
magnitude of the peril in which he finds himself involved. 
He cultivates, under the promptings of godly sorrow, an 
utter hatred for sin, in every form of beauty, of advantage 
or of distinction, in which it solicits his regard. He is 
utterly abased in his own eyes, on account of the loath- 
some impurity and degradation in which sin has involved 
his whole moral being. His heart pours forth a frank, full, 
unextenuated confession of his rebellion and ingratitude. 
He labors diligently, carefully and with earnest solicitude 
to reform all that is amiss, in his affections, his tempers, 
his conversation, his conduct^ in short, in all his habits of 
life ; and, to the full extent of his ability, he renders a 
compensation for all the wrongs his sins have done to 
others. This repentance, Scriptural in its producing 
influence and in its character, he had fondly hoped would 



REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 513 

secure his salvation. His experience now shows him that 
this hope was not well-founded — guilt still lies heavy 
upon his conscience. Still, he feels himself to be a slave 
of sin, and under the curse of the violated law, which will 
exact on him its fearful penalty, unless indemnified by an 
adequate compensation for the wrong done to the Divine 
authority, and, through that, to the whole moral universe, by 
his sins. What wonder, then, if the repentant sinner ex- 
claims, in the despair occasioned by this failure of repentance 
to secure to him the salvation he had hoped from it: "What 
shall I do?" "Is the mercy of God clean gone?" "Hath 
God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He, in anger, shut 
up His tender mercies?" Here, self -despair siezes upon 
his soul, and he yields to the humiliating conviction, that, 
if he is ever saved, it must be by a process in which he 
can have no other participation than that of the pauper — 
the mere receiving of salvation on such terms as the 
Giver of that salvation shall have prescribed. 

2. Repentance towards God prepares the penitent sinner 
to embrace the terms on which alone God has proffered sal- 
vation to offending mankind. He is thus prepared by his 
hatred for sin, and his consequent earnest desire to be 
delivered from its detested dominion — by his humiliation, 
which presumes not to stipulate terms with God, or to 
question those which He has seen proper to prescribe- — 
by that habit of subjection to the will of God, in which he 
has been trained by the rigorous discipline of repentance 
■ — by despair of working out his own salvation, by any 
process of his own devising, or within the scope of his 
own capabilities — and by the urgent need of salvation, 
revealed to him in the conviction of sin, in which his 

33 



514 REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD. 

repentance originated, and from which that repentance 
has, all along, derived its vitality and vigor. Cut off 
from all dependence on his own best performances, by the 
experience his repentance has afforded him, and urged 
on by his agonizing sense of his need of salvation, the 
penitent is now prepared to embrace God's terms of saving 
sinners, through faith in Christ. 



DISCOURSE XVI. 

SALVATION BY FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. — Acts xvi, 31. 

Our text is an answer to the inquiry of the alarmed 
and penitent Jailer, at Philippi, when he had witnessed 
the manifest interposition of Divine power, in behalf of 
Paul and Silas,, whom the magistrates,, after having laid 
many stripes upon them, had committed to prison, under 
his custody, with a charge that he should keep them 
safely; and, whom he had, accordingly, incarcerated in 
the inner prison, and fastened in the stocks by their feet, 
that he might render their escape impossible. At mid- 
night, these bruised and mangled prisoners, in the gloom 
of their dungeon, and under the painful constraint to 
which they were subjected by being fastened in the 
stocks, "prayed and sung praises to God" so loud that 
the other " prisoners heard them." The devout exercises 
of these imprisoned ministers of Christ, called into opera- 
tion an agency capable of baffling all the rigorous 
precautions of the Jailer, to carry into effect the mandate 
of his superiors, for the safe-keeping of these prisoners. 
Without any of those premonitory indications, which 
usually herald the approach of such phenomena, "sud- 

515 



516 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

denly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations 
of the prison were shaken — the prison-doors were opened, 
and every one's bands loosed." Awaking from sleep, and 
seeing the condition of the prison, the Jailer naturally 
concluded that the prisoners had all escaped ; and, being, 
doubtless, responsible with his life for the safe-keeping of 
those committed to his custody, he was in the act of 
escaping the disgrace of a public execution, by the short 
method by which it was a frequent custom with the 
Romans to terminate their fears and their calamities. He 
had drawn his sword, and was about to plunge it into his 
own bosom, when his rash hand was stayed, by a voice from 
the inner prison, earnestly entreating the desperate man 
to spare himself, and assuring him that the danger he 
apprehended did not exist ; as all the prisoners were still 
in his power. He had, doubtless, heard for what cause 
Paul and Silas had been beaten and committed to prison 
— for preaching Christ, as the Saviour of men. He knew 
the severities which, for this, had been inflicted on them, 
by himself as well as by others. How vastly superior to 
any magnanimity or kindness with which he was acquainted, 
were those of these men, who, not only voluntarily remained 
in prison, when a way was opened for their escape, but 
perpetuated their vile durance, rather than see him, whe 
had been so cruel to them, place himself beyond the 
power of doing them further injury, by destroying his own 
life ! Connecting this with the manner in which their 
prison-doors were opened and their fetters removed, was it 
not natural for him to adopt the conclusion that the mes- 
sage which these men had proclaimed, at so much risk, 
was the truth, and under the patronage of the Supreme 
Ruler of the universe, who alone could have produced the 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 517 

earthquake and' its accompanying wonders, in the opening 
of the prison-doors, and in the loosening of the prisoners' 
bonds ? This persuasion would, at once, lead him ta 
investigate his own need of the salvation proposed in that 
message. And, he must be indeed blind and stupid, who r 
when his attention is seriously fixed upon his own moral 
condition, does not see that it is deplorable, and his state 
dangerous in the extreme. Hence, it was perfectly 
natural that the Jailer, aroused and convinced, as we have 
supposed him to be, should promptly and earnestly seek 
to discover by what way he might escape from his present 
moral inthrallment and guilt, and avoid the danger which 
lowered over him, in the eternal future of his destiny. 
And, who, it would be natural for him to reflect, could be 
so well qualified to instruct him, in this matter as the 
messengers of God, whose great and accredited business- 
it was to " bring men to the knowledge of salvation ?" 
He, accordingly, when arrested in his mad purpose of 
self-destruction, by the kindly voice of his cruelly-used 
prisoners, "called for a light — sprang in, to where his 
prisoners were endungeoned — came before them trembling 
— fell down before them — brought them out," (probably 
into the public room of the prison,) " and said, 6 Sirs I what 
must I do to be saved V " The interpretation which some 
have given of this question, viz : That the Jailer wished 
to know how he might be saved from the danger to which 
he was exposed, on account of what had occurred in the 
prison, during the night, is palpably absurd. He could 
not now suppose himself in any danger on this account : 
for, his prisoners were all safe in his custody. Besides, 
had there been any such danger, his prisoners could not 
have been supposed capable of directing him how to 



518 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

escape it. And, finally, the answer they returned to him 
would have had no pertinency to the question to which it 
was responded. For, of what avail could believing on the 
Lord Jesus Christ have been to him, in relation to danger, 
of the hind supposed in this interpretation ? It might have 
enhanced such a danger — it could not have saved him 
from it. Either Paul and Silas trifled with the Jailer's 
anxiety most cruelly, or the necessity, which elicited his 
eager inquiry, was of the kind we have supposed it to be 
— a necessity arising from the sinfulness and the guilt of 
which he was now convicted bv his own conscience. 

For salvation from sin, its guilt and its consequences, 
there is but one provision known to the Gospel — that 
provision is the merits of Christ, in its atoning efficacy, 
and in its application, to individual necessity, by the Spirit 
and grace of God ; and, where the Gospel message has 
been published, there is, as we intimated in our last Dis- 
course, but one condition, upon compliance with which the 
personal transgressor can secure an interest in that 
provision, so as to obtain the salvation of his soul — that 
condition is faith in Christ Salvation from sin, by faith 
in Christ, will form the important subject of our medita- 
tion in the present Discourse. This subject consists of 
two parts — both of them deeply interesting to all who 
have "sinned and come short of the glory of God" — in 
other words, to all men. These parts of the subject are, 

I. Salvation from sin ; and 

II. Faith in Christ is the only condition of this salvation, 
m the case of Gospel-taught sinners. 

III. We shall notice some of the principal effects of 
salvation from sin, by faith in Christ. 

I. The first part of our subject is salvation from sin, 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 519 

Salvation means the same thing as deliverance and pre- 
servation. We are saved from calamity, when we are 
delivered from it — we are saved from danger, when we 
are preserved from its befalling us. To be saved from 
sin, not only implies deliverance from if, as a moral state, 
and from the guilt which it has brought upon us, but also 
a preservation from the danger to which it has rendered 
us liable. We shall consider salvation from sin according 
to this complex view of it; but, in doing so, we shall 
separate it into its several parts, and treat of each 
distinctly. 

Sin supposes moral agency, moral obligation, moral law 
and a transgression of that law. A moral law can be as 
effectually transgressed by an allowed state of the affec- 
tions, as by the most flagrant act ; and guilt follows upon 
the former as certainly as upon the latter. That man is 
a moral agent, and subject to moral obligation, we have 
had frequent occasions, in previous Discourses, of attempt- 
ing to show. We should, therefore, deem it wholly 
superfluous to dwell upon these positions in this place* 
That man is under the requirements of moral law, most 
persons will readily agree, and the Holy Scriptures place 
the matter out of all question, by their teachings on the 
subject. Throughout the whole Sacred Volume, God is 
represented as the Supreme Ruler of man ; and as having 
given him a law for his government — written out clearly, 
in His word of Revelation, or inscribed, less distinctly, but 
with clearness enough to leave its transgressors without 
excuse, in the hearts of those who have not been favored 
with that Word. This law is eminently moral in its char- 
acter, addressing itself chiefly to the moral faculties of 
man, regulating his affections and passions, and aiming 



520 SALVATION BY FAITH, 

especially at the formation of individual character, rather 
than the conservation of social interests. The spirit or 
genius of this law is love ; and the direction and measure 
of this affection, together with its obligation, are the sum 
of that law. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with 
all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy strength ; and thou shalt love thy 
aeighbor as thyself — upon these two commandments 
hang all the law and the prophets." To love God with 
all our faculties, and to love our neighbor — every man — 
as we love ourselves, and to act in accordance with the 
tendency of these affections, embrace the whole scope of 
the Divine law, in its requirements upon man. Now, a 
breach of this law, in any point, and during no matter how 
short a time, is - sin against God, and, consequently, incurs 
guilt. 

1. By being saved from sin, we understand being 
delivered from sin, as a moral state. In this is included 
salvation from sin, in the dominion it exerts over action, 
and in the bias of the affections to that which is sinful. 
Salvation from sin embraces deliverance from both these. 
This deliverance is usually characterized as conversion and 
sanctification — the former rectifying the willy and, conse- 
quently, the habits of life — the latter purifying the 
affections and giving to them a uniformly right direction. 
Unless bothi these changes pass upon man, he cannot, with 
any propriety, be regarded as saved from sin. No one, 
surely, will contend that he, who is still under the 
dominion of sin, is saved from it. As little propriety, we 
conceive, would there be in considering him saved from 
sin, whose affections and passions are tainted and biased 
by its influence. All, we think, who consider salvation 



SALVATION Br FA1TII. 521 

from sin anything more than a mere submission to 
religious ceremonials, deem of it, when complete, as an 
entire deliverance from not only the power of sin over the 
life, but from its existence — even its latent existence in 
the soul. Those who appear before the throne in heaven, 
must, as all allow, appear in "robes white and clean" — 
" without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." Even those 
who believe that man cannot be saved from sin while he 
continues in this life, still allow that, ere he can enter 
heaven, he must be so saved; and ascribe the consummation 
of his salvation to some unrevealed, some unimaginable 
influence of death on his moral state, or to the. purifying 
flames of a purgatory, that has been dreamed into existence 
by metaphysical speculation, or contrived by ambition and 
cupidity, for the purposes of gaining dominion over man, 
by means of his tenderest sensibilities and most sacred 
instincts, and of extorting from him large fees for servicer 
pretended to be rendered to departed relatives, by the 
priest. We think it probable that the absurdity of 
ascribing any soul-saving influence to death, or of limiting 
almighty grace to the hour of death for the completion of 
salvation, led some, who credited the necessary existence 
of sin in man during his whole life, to adopt the figment 
of purgatorial fire, intermediate between life and heaven. 
Be this as it may, the doctrine of entire deliverance from 
sin, as a moral state, is included in the idea of perfected 
salvation entertained by these as well as in that entertained 
by those who believe that salvation is of God, and may be 
accomplished by Him as effectually forty years before 
death, as at the consummation of that change, or by any 
purgatorial fires that could be kindled, even by the breath, 
of the Almighty Himself. 



522 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

2. Salvation from sin includes deliverance from the 
guilt of sins previously committed. A sense of guilt 
produces remorse — the most painful emotion that can 
arise in a human bosom. It combines in itself the most 
soul-harrowing self-reproach, a consciousness of the Divine 
displeasure and frightfully ala«nyag apprehensional^f 
wrath, forever coming, as the just punishment of sin. 

Salvation from sin includes the removal of this most 
painful emotion, by deliverance from guilt, a sense of 
which has excited it. This deliverance is indispensable 
to the well-being of the sinner; for, so long as he is the 
subject of guilt, he must be under the curse of God, as 
the righteous Ruler of the moral world. " The wrath of 
God abideth on him," who lies under the guilt of trans- 
gressing the moral law, and of thus violating the sacred 
obligation he is under to the infinite Being, to whom he is 
responsible for his moral state and character. To such a 
one there can be no rational enjoyment of existence. 
The only refuge of such is in the wild hurry of distracting 
excitement, or in blockish stupidity and thoughtlessness, 
■—neither of which is compatible with rational enjoyment. 
To the wakeful and considerate, who dare to look at their 
condition steadily, guilt covers the past with infamy, fills 
the present with anguish and overclouds the future with 
gloom and horror. Salvation from sin removes all these 
complicated evils, by removing the guilt in which they 
have their origin. This is the taking off of a crushing 
weight from the conscience — this is the extracting of the 
fiery dart, which was rankling in the heart, and whose 
poison was drinking up the spirits — this is the pouring of 
balm into the bleeding and bruised soul, to soothe its 
anguish and to heal its wounds — this is a coming out of 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 523 

the darkness of condemnation, into the marvelous light 
of God's favor — this is the scattering of the clouds of 
coming wrath, which loomed up, with portentous gloom, in 
the eternal future. How important, then, is deliverance 
from the guilt of sin ! No language can express its value. 
No human mind can estimate its importance. Only those, 
who are conversant with the secrets of the horrible pit, 
from which it preserves the sinner, and with the joys of 
heaven, to which it opens the way to the sinner, could 
adequately conceive how dependent is his happiness on 
the removal of his guilt. 

3. Salvation from sin, as a moral state, is preservation 
from the danger to which sin exposes man. 

(1.) The indulgence of sinful dispositions exposes him, 
who allows himself in that indulgence, to imminent danger 
of running up an accumulated account against himself 
with Divine Justice, and of, thereby, " heaping up wrath, 
against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous 
judgment of God." Man, having entered upon any 
course, especially a vicious one, pursues it with constantly 
accelerated progress, as use and habit come in aid of 
choice and determination. Hence, he, in whom sin, as a 
moral state, is prevalent, experiences, every day he con- 
tinues in that state, a constantly increasing facility in 
sinning. What was, to him, once so revolting as to be 
morally impossible, has now become so easy as to seem 
the result of constitutional tendency. The circle of his 
abominations is continually widening — taking in one posi- 
tion of antagonism to God after another, till the whole 
field of his moral operations is one vast and hideous scene 
of rebellion against the government of God. The stream 
of his moral corruption, at "first a timid rill, that hid itself 



524 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

amid reeds and flowers, has gone on increasing, in its pro- 
gress, by one accession after another, till it has become 
deep, wide and of so forceful a current as to sweep before 
it every obstacle that is interposed, either by human 
purpose or by the grace of God. At no point, in his 
downward progress, can the sinner become stationary. He 
must recede or go forward. He must be saved from sin, 
or he will and must go on, to add sin to his sin. How 
afflicting and alarming is this view of the condition of the 
sinner! Every moment, he is widening the distance 
between himself and God! Every moment, he is aug- 
menting the terrible claims of Divine Justice against 
himself! Nay, more: every moment, the speed, with 
which he departs from God, is increased, and the rapidity 
with which wrath accumulates against him is accele- 
rated! Salvation from sin, as a moral state, at any 
point in this downward course, cuts off this fatal pro- 
gress. And, it not only ends this fearful progress, but 
it also initiates the sinner in a counter progress, the ten- 
dency of which is to everlasting life, at the right hand 
of God. Thus, the sinner, in being saved from sin, is also 
saved from the rapidly descending course of trnsgression, 
which, till he was thus saved, lay stretched out before himy 
and along which he was drawn onward with a still increasing 
attraction. 

(2.) Salvation from sin is preservation from the lega! 
consequences of the sin which has been perpetrated. The 
heart being delivered from its corrupt state and its rebel- 
lious tendencies, and the guilt of former trangressions 
being removed, "the fearful looking for of judgment and 
fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries," is, 
consequently, removed; and the sinner is, therefore, pre- 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 525 

served from that disquiet and perturbation, which, like the 
agitation of the sea, allows of no rest, no peace to the 
soul ; and, especially is he preserved from the unutterable 
terrors which death awakens in the bosom of the sinner, 
conscious of his sins, and having a just appreciation of the 
enormity of his guilt This disquiet and perturbation, 
and these terrors of anticipated death, are ingredients in 
•the most delicious cup of life, which are sufficiently noxious 
to destroy its power of imparting happiness — nay, to 
•communicate to it the bitterness of death. Hence, the 
truth of the aphorism, which has been deemed axiomatic 
in its character, that "No wicked man is happy." 
Axiomatic or not, the truth of the aphorism is established 
by the testimony of all experience, in all ages and in all 
the varied circumstances in which that experience has 
been acquired. No amount of wealth — no ministrations 
of pleasure — no gratification of ambition have been able 
to calm the disturbed bosom of the sinner, or to satisfy 
the cravings of an immortal spirit, cut off by sin from 
communion with God, and, by the same fell influence, 
thrown, helpless and defenseless, within the sweep of 
Divine wrath. Salvation from sin alone can remove these 
insuperable ^hindrances to human happiness, and restore 
to the sinner the possibility of regaining that lost trea- 
sure, for the enjoyment of which he was intended and 
iproperly constituted in his creation. 

(3.) There awaits the sinner, dying in that state, a 
destiny of woe, of which the whole sum of the discom- 
forts sin inflicts upon man in this life is scarcely an 
appreciable foretaste. The present life of man is a state 
of mixed condition, a probationary state, in which, not the 
reward of sin, but its effects merely are experienced by 



526 8ALVATI0N BY FAITH. 

the sinner; and, these effects are so mixed up with and 
qualified by the influence of surrounding circumstances, 
that, very often, the sinner is hardly aware of their exist- 
ence, and never is able to realize the full extent of their 
deleterious character. The future will be a state of 
rewards for the deeds of this life; and will, therefore, be 
characterized by the nature of the rewards assigned, 
whether for weal or woe. The future of sinners will be a 
state of unmingled evil — of unqualified wretchedness; 
for, it will be a state of punishment for sin against God* 
There will enter into the gloom of its darkness, not one 
ray of light: no whisper of consolation, no drop of com- 
fort will soothe the anguish of soul which will be an 
abundant ingredient in their cup of sorrow. "Their worm 
shall never die — the fire shall never be quenched," in 
which they are to be punished — not purified — "destroyed 
with everlasting destruction," not disciplined for eternal 
blessedness. In the society of impure and malignant 
spirits; under the wrath and curse of that God, against 
whom they devoted their term of probation to rebellion 
and ingratitude, and with the stern voice of conscience, 
now sleepless as the eye of God, and honest as truth 
itself, forever thundering in their ears — "Ye knew your 
duty, and ye did it not!" — thus must lie the miserable 
sinner, in the lapse of ever-recurring years, while eternity 
rolls on its ceaseless current. What heart so stout as can 
brook the prospect of such a fearful doom as is here 
faintly indicated! And, yet, such, but ineffably more 
dreadful, is the doom of every child of man, who dies 
unsaved from sin. Salvation from sin preserves the sin- 
ner from this horrible doom; as it removes the cause by 
which man is disqualified for the service and enjoyment 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 527 

of God, and as it removes the guilt to which this doom is 
awarded by the justice of the righteous Sovereign. These 
causes of banishment from God, and the punishment of 
the banished sinner, being removed by salvation from sin, 
he, who is thus saved, is, at the moment of such salvation, 
and while he shall continue a subject of it, secured from 
a participation in the fearful punishment that is due to 
sin. A contrary supposition would charge God with 
injustice — with an injustice equal to that which He would 
exhibit, in consigning one who had always been innocent 
to the punishment due alone to sin ; for, salvation from 
sin places the sinner in the same relation to the sanctions 
of the Divine law as that which he would have occupied, 
if he had never transgressed that law. How unutterably 
important this salvation ! It can be rightly imagined only 
in view of the horrible pit, whose gloomy gates it closes 
against the sinner's entrance into it, and in view of that 
eternal felicity to which, through this salvation, he may, 
at last, attain. 

(4.) Salvation from sin, is a daily, hourly, constant 
preservation from the danger of returning under the 
bondage and into the corruption of sin, as a moral state ; 
of bringing new guilt upon the soul, and of incurring all 
the fearful consequences of such apostasy. That such a 
danger is not, in the nature of things, inconsistent with any 
measure of deliverance from sin, though it should be 
absolutely perfect, is evident from the facts that pure and 
upright angels " kept not their first estate," but sinned 
and are now " reserved in everlasting chains under dark- 
ness unto the judgment of the great day;" and that 
Adam, " made in the image of God," holy, just and good, 
became a transgressor of the law ; and, by his sin, involved 



528 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

himself and his whole race in guilt and ruin. Nor, we do 
not hesitate to affirm, is there any guarantee, in the plan 
of salvation, for the perseverance of one who has been 
saved from sin, in the way of righteousness, and, conse- 
quently, in the way of salvation. On the contrary, the 
Scriptures of truth, among their clearest revelations, urge 
upon our attention, not the possibility merely, but the 
great danger there is that those who have begun to " run 
well," should be " hindered," " draw back" and lose the 
favor of God. To this purpose, we have, in the Sacred 
Volume, striking examples, solemn and oft-repeated warn- 
ings, earnest and impressive admonitions and tender and 
urgent exhortations — all implying the danger in question. 
Salvation from sin is, we repeat, continual preservation 
from apostasy. Were we left dependent on ourselves 
alone, there is, probably, not one of Adam's degenerate 
race, no matter what his attainments in piety, that would 
stand fast by his allegiance to God for even a single 
moment Every moment, will be needed grace to "pre- 
serve them unblamable in holiness," and continue them in 
a state of justification and acceptance with God. Salva- 
tion from sin, to be complete and final, requires this 
preservation to the end of life. 

We have seen that salvation from sin is a deliverance 
from sin, both as it regards its dominion over action, and 
as it is a corruption or perversion of moral nature — a 
deliverance from the guilt of sins already perpetrated — 
a preservation from increasing the activity and facility of 
the sinner, in his course of rebellion, and, consequently, 
from augmenting the amount of his guilt and the severity 
of his punishment as a sinner — from the legal consequences 
of sin, both in time and eternity, and from the danger of 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 529 

falling back into sin, into guilt and under the curse of the 
law. We are now, 

II. To consider the second part of our subject, viz., that 
faith in Christ is the only condition of this salvation, in the 
case of all Gospel-taught sinners. 

We thus specify those to whose salvation, a compliance 
with this condition is indispensable, because the Holy 
Scriptures authorize the assertion, that " in every nation, 
he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted 
of Him," and, consequently, are saved from sin. Now, if 
there were no cases, in which men who are without Gospel 
instruction, and, consequently, incapable of faith in Christ, 
who do fear God, work righteousness and are accepted of 
Him, and, therefore, saved, this declaration of Holy Writ, 
would be egregious trifling. The whole tenor of New- 
Testament instruction goes to establish, beyond successful 
controversy, these two important positions — that he, who, 
in the diligent use of the means providentially afforded 
him, serves God with purpose of heart and with persevering 
fidelity, will be saved, through the merits of Christ's atoning 
sacrifice, and his availing intercession, and by the influence 
of the Holy Spirit — and, that, where the Gospel is pub- 
lished, men can be saved only on condition of faith in 
those merits and that intercession. As our Discourse is 
to those favored with Gospel instruction, we deem it need- 
less to dwell at greater length upon exceptional instances 
of salvation; and shall, accordingly, confine our further 
remarks to the condition, on which alone salvation is offered 
to man in that instruction. 

1. Our first attempt will be to ascertain the nature of 
the faith in question. It is, by one scripture, represented 
to be the believing of the testimony ivhich God hath given 

34 



530 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

of His Son — that is, thai eternal life is to come to man 
through His Son. There can be no faith without a belief 
of the proposition which is the subject-matter of that faith. 
But, is a mere belief in the truth of the proposition or 
propositions, of which faith is predicated, the faith required 
in order to salvation ? We think there is, in a portion 
of Scripture we are about to cite, a clear intimation that 
it is not. That scripture informs us that it is " with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness." Now, we know, 
every Bible-reader, and, indeed, every man who under- 
stands common language, must know that the intellectual 
faculties, by which the act of mere believing is performed, 
are never indicated by the term heart, but that the affec- 
tions are very often indicated by it. Not only must the 
intellectual faculties recognize the truth of the propositions 
involved in the testimony to be received ; but, especially 
must the affections rally to those propositions, and be 
appropriately influenced by them. Those propositions 
must be approved, not only as true, but as fit and right, 
by the intellect; and they must also be embraced by 
the affections, as worthy of regard, in proportion to the 
importance of their relation to the honor of God and 
the well-being of man. And, particularly must trust and 
confidence be reposed in the pledges they tender to man. 
Whatever they promise to man must be relied on, not as 
possible or even as true, in general merely, but as certain 
to be accomplished in the case of every individual, at the 
very moment he sustains the relation contemplated in the 
promise. Thus : if it be promised that " whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved," the faith- 
fulness of the promise must be relied on, and salvation 
expected to follow immediately upon calling upon the 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 531 

name of the Lord, as the fulfillment of that promise. It 
is not enough to believe that calling upon the name of 
the Lord is necessary in order to salvation, or that salva- 
tion will, sometime, follow upon calling on the name of the 
Lord ; but, the fulfillment of the promise must be expected 
to follow at once, upon compliance with the condition. 
Nothing short of this, answers to the faith of the Gospel. 
That faith is taking God at His toord — is unquestioning, 
unhesitating reliance upon His truth and His fidelity. 

2. We consider the subject-matter of faith. It is, that, 
by offering Himself an atoning sacrifice for mankind, Christ 
has made provision for their salvation from sin. In this 
provision is included the expiation of original guilt, restored 
probation, moral power, the regenerating, quickening, 
enlightening, converting and sanctifying influences of 
the Holy Ghost — the pardon of sins, upon compliance 
with the condition on which pardon is offered — the 
attestation of that pardon and of the adoption, as a child 
of God, which always accompanies pardon — protection 
against the wiles of the Devil and every other temptation, 
from whatever quarter it may come, so as that the sinner, 
saved by grace, is not permitted to be " tempted above 
that he is able." Faith, moreover, embraces, within its 
scope, the advocacy and intercession of Christ ; in which 
He secures the offer of this ample provision for salvation 
to every sinner, and its effectiveness in the case of every 
one who accepts the offer. Christ is the center object in 
the view of faith — the source and fountain whence pro- 
ceed all the streams of this saving provision. Hence, to 
believe in Christ, is to accredit and rely upon the offer of 
salvation made in the Gospel — to trust in the adequacy 
and efficiency of the provision made for its accomplishment 



532 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

— and to trace all these streams of saying influence to 
Christ as their source. Christ, then, in His atoning 
merits, in the provision he has made for the salvation of 
man, and in His constant administration of that provision, 
by His advocacy and intercession for man, before the 
presence of offended Majesty, is the subject-matter of 
saving faith. By faith, the sinner casts himself, with 
exclusive and unquestioning confidence, on the merits of 
Christ's atonement — the sufficiency of the provision made 
by Him, for the salvation of man — and the efficacy of 
His advocacy and intercession, for salvation from sin. 
Note this : The sinner, in the exercise of saving faith, 
exercises this trust for personal and immediate salvation. 
Barren generalities, in believing, will not secure salvation. 
Nor, will it avail to make the matter personal, unless the 
trust is instant, as well as exclusive — claiming instant, 
personal salvation from sin, as the result of trust in the 
truth and faithfulness of God, and in the sufficiency of 
merit and adequacy of provision for salvation in Christ. 

3. An inquiry, of much interest, ought not to be left 
unnoticed in this Discourse, viz: 'Is faith the gift of God, 
or is it the act of the sinner, who is saved by its instru- 
mentality V We think there can be no rational question 
that faith is the act of the sinner. It is required as his act, 
by every command, exhortation and invitation of the 
Gospel, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and the want 
of faith is set forth as the chief ground of condemnation 
and perdition to those who finally perish. Now, were not 
faith the act of the sinner, all this would be absurd, 
tantalizing and unjust. To require man to do what is not 
within the scope of his capability of performing, and to 
condemn him for not doing what is so required, carry upon 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 533 

their very face, the characters of absurdity and cruel 
injustice. Still, we do not hesitate to affirm that faith is 
the gift of God — the gift of God, too, in a sense different 
from and greatly superior to one we have not unfrequently 
heard assigned to it, viz: 'That God gave the faculties to 
be exercised in faith — the truth, to be believed and the 
evidences, by which that truth is established.' All this is 
true; but, we think, all this is but a part of the truth in 
the matter. The power, or faculties, exercised in the act 
of faith, were perverted and enfeebled by the influence 
of the original transgression — these faculties are reinvigo- 
rated and rectified, by the gracious influence of the Divine 
Spirit — the medium, through which moral and religious 
truth are presented to the mind of man was disturbed, 
distorted and darkened, by the influence of the Fall — 
this hindrance, to the exercise of faith, is removed, by the 
same Spirit of all grace. In short, the power to believe, 
the truth to be believed, and the evidences supporting 
that truth, are all of grace ; and, therefore, the faith which 
is exercised, by these Divinely restored faculties, in the 
truth Divinely revealed, on the authority of the testimony 
Divinely afforded must be regarded as being, in a peculiar 
sense, the gift of God. That it is so, is evident from the 
prayer of the apostles: "Lord, increase our faith!" and 
from the agency ascribed to Him, in the origination and 
completion of this important act of the saved, when He 
is represented as the " author and finisher of their faith." 
We say nothing of Ephesians ii, 8: "By grace ye are 
saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the 
gift of God;" as we doubt of faith being that which is 
here declared to be the gift of God. We incline to the 
opinion that the gift of God is predicated of the whole 



534 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

process, embracing the agency — grace — the instrumen- 
tality or medium, faith — and the achievement, salvation. 
All this is of the mercy of God in Christ. The whole 
operation, including all its appliances, is the gift of God in 
Christ. Be this as it may, it appears to us that faith is 
the gift of God, in a manner not to supersede the moral 
agency of man in its exercise; and the act of the sinner, 
in such a way as that he is not independent, in its per- 
formance, of the grace of God. 

4. We shall, finally, consider the rationale of salvation 
from sin, by faith in Christ. Faith, considered in its direct 
moral force, would be utterly inadequate to the achieve- 
ment of man's salvation. Somewhat, tending to salvation, 
it may be supposed capable of accomplishing, in the 
exertion of that force. It may, and nothing else, perhaps, 
can so effectually excite penitence, as a realizing view, by 
faith, of the agonies of the Saviour on the Cross, when 
He expiated the sin of mankind, by offering Himself an 
atoning sacrifice for that sin. Again: what can beget 
such a sense of gratitude, as faith, when it reveals to man 
that love wherewith God loved us, when "He gave His 
Only-begotten Son, to be a propitiation for our sins?" The 
proper, rational effect, moral effect, we mean, of the view 
which faith presents of this wondrous love, is to excite 
love to God. How could it be otherwise than that those 
who have entertained this view, should feel as St. John 
felt, when he said : " We love Him, because He first 
loved us ? " But, allowing all that can be reasonably 
claimed for the efficiency of faith, as a moral operative, it 
must come far short of effecting our salvation. And, if 
faith be the instrument of our salvation, it must be so, by 
putting in motion an agency beyond the scope of its own 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 535 

moral operation. This it does. By the ordination and 
appointment of God, faith is rendered the connecting 
medium, between the sinner and the merits of Christ's 
atoning sacrifice and His efficacious and unceasing advo- 
cacy and intercession. Faith is thus rendered a negotiable 
Draft, upon the Treasury of Heaven, to the full amount 
of all that is necessary in order to salvation. By virtue 
of it are obtained those influences and operations of the 
Holy Ghost, by which man is " created in Christ Jesus 
unto good works;" by which he is made "a new creature;" 
by which he is "purified from all iniquity," "cleansed 
from all unrighteousness;" by which he is "made meet for 
the inheritance of the saints in light." Faith appropriates 
the merits of Christ's sacrificial death to the sinner; so 
as that God can " be just, and the justifier of him that 
believeth in Jesus." Faith secures, to the justified and 
regenerated sinner, that constant supply of grace, whereby 
he is enabled to "serve God with reverence and godly 
fear" — to "keep himself in the love of God" — to "be 
faithful unto death," and, consequently, to "finish his 
course with joy." Faith is the " shield, whereby every 
fiery dart of the wicked shall be quenched" — "the victory 
that overcometh the world." He that"keepeth the faith" 
to the end, is "kept by the power of God, through" that 
" faith unto salvation." Faith, then, secures the influences 
of the Holy Spirit, necessary to a change of heart — a 
new birth — the sanctification of the Spirit and "continu- 
ance in well-doing" — appropriates the merits of the 
atonement, made by Jesus Christ, to the believer's justi- 
fication before God — and arms him with the power of 
God Himself, so far as the exigencies of his salvation 
require its exertion. The efficacy of faith, in the salvation 



536 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

of man, lies chiefly in its subject-matter ; and not in its 
intrinsic moral force. It is the arm of God, made bare 
and put in motion by faith, that achieves the salvation of 
man; and, who can doubt the efficiency of this Agent? Or, 
who will dispute the fitness of the requirement that God 
shall be trusted, for the salvation which he proposes to 
man, and which He, and He only can accomplish? Nay, 
could he reasonably abate this requirement? Would 
there not be a palpable absurdity in supposing that God 
would save a sinner, whom he could not inspire with con- 
fidence in His ability and willingness to save, and in the 
truth and fidelity of His promises? 

III. We shall notice some of the principal effects of salva- 
tion, by faith in Christ. 

1. Salvation from sin, as it is deliverance from the 
dominion of sin, and from corrupt moral tendencies, 
renders the individual, thus saved, free to adopt a new 
and an upright course of life. " The Son, having made 
him free, he is free indeed." " Having been made free 
from sin, he has become the servant of righteousness; and 
has his fruit unto holiness." Such is one of the effects, 
ascribed to salvation, by the sacred Scriptures; and such 
a result of salvation from sin is attested by the experience 
of all ages. The gay votary of soul-debasing sensual 
pleasure, becomes " sober, grave, temperate" — regardful 
of rational dignity, watchful against enervating and disor- 
dering excess, in any kind of indulgence, and diligent in 
endeavors at every sort of improvement, mental, moral 
and social. The motto, of every one so saved, is " What- 
soever things are true; whatsoever things are honest; 
whatsoever things are just; whatsoever things are pure; 
whatsoever things are lovely ; whatsoever things are of 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 537 

good report — if there be any virtue, and if there he any 
praise, think on these things." In the spirit of this motto, 
the profane man, whose language was dishonorable to his 
own character, offensive to right-minded associates and 
insulting to God, which gave expression to violent and 
overmastering passion, or consisted in senseless, disgusting 
and shocking expletives, now speaks in a language befit- 
ting a rational being, and calculated to " minister grace to 
the hearer." He, whose regard for truth was not sufficient 
to enable him to resist the temptation of sacrificing it, to 
procure the reputation of wit and humor — to "set the 
table in a roar" of laughter — to escape from the incon- 
venience of some by-gone fault, or to win some future 
advantage, now speaks the truth and only the truth, on all 
occasions. He, that, before being saved from sin, was 
regardless of the rights of others, when those rights 
interfered with what he considered his own interest ; and, 
who, therefore, perpetrated any wrong towards his fellow- 
men, affecting either their persons, their property or their 
reputation, which he supposed would be conducive to his 
own advantage, now holds the rights of his neighbors so 
sacred that, rather, than inflict wrong upon them, he would 
submit to suffer wrong at their hands. "As he would that 
all men should do to him," so, now, he is disposed to " do 
to them." Nor, is he satisfied with having met the claims 
of honesty and justice, in his intercourse with his fellow- 
men — he seeks, by courtesy, by kindness, by amiable 
and conciliatory deportment, to soothe and to cheer 
those upon whom the influence of his character operates, 
whether in the domestic circle or in general society. 
And, apart from social considerations, he aims at attain- 
ing, in his own person, " to the stature of a man," in all 



538 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

virtuous development, and in all praise-worthy qualities ; 
that he may stand approved in the sight of God, and in 
the estimation of his own conscience "a perfect and 
upright man — one that feareth God and escheweth evil." 
2. Salvation from sin, not only restores moral freedom, 
and opens, before its subject, a course of holy living, but 
furnishes also the most effective motives to impel him 
onward in that way. It shows him how far gone he has 
been from the way of righteousness — how deep sunk in 
the degradation of his moral standing ; and, consequently, 
the vigorous, diligent and persevering effort it will require 
to enable him to regain what he has lost by sin. He sees 
that he must "forget the things that are behind" — count 
as nothing the attainments already made — "reaching 
forth unto those things which are before" — the, as yet, 
unattained excellencies of Christian character — he must 
"press to the mark" — must task every energy to its 
utmost efficiency, that he may come to " the mark for the 
prize." Below, or short of that mark, the "prize of the 
high calling, of God in Christ Jesus" is not assured to 
those who aim at securing it. The most powerful motives 
are thus presented to the self-love of him who has been 
saved from sin, to "go on unto perfection." And, then, 
to the higher principles of his nature, how mighty the 
motives to holy living, which are furnished by this salva- 
tion by faith in Christ ! It reveals man to himself as, in 
the highest and most sacred sense, the property of God 
— as "not his own, but bought with a price" — not "with 
silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ" — 
how manifest and how imperative, then, his obligation, to 
devote himself to the service of God ! How obvious and 
how sacred his duty, to "glorify God, in his body and in 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 539 

his spirit, which are God's," by a right so dearly acquired ! 
This motive is vastly strengthened by the fact, that God 
was induced to this wonderful transaction — the redemption 
of man — by no selfish consideration whatever, but by love 
— love to man! — love to man, while in sin ! — a rebel 
against Himself ! "God commendeth His love towards 
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
Nothing beside, bearing any appreciable proportion to this 
love of God to the human race, has ever been witnessed 
in the universe of sentient and moral beings. A love 
so more than merely disinterested, so great and prompting 
so dearly-prized a sacrifice ! Man not only deserved no 
love, on account of moral worth, but was a proper sub- 
ject for loathing and abhorrence, and, by sin, was in open 
and unrelenting hostility against God. His was the 
"carnal mind, which is enmity against God — not subject 
to the law of God, neither can be." Still, loathsome and 
hostile to him as man was, " God so loved him, as to give 
His Only-begotten Son," to be "a sacrifice for the sin," 
by which he had rendered himself thus loathsome and 
hostile ! Of all this, the faith, by which the sinner is 
saved, impresses a strong and an affecting conviction upon 
the mind ; and exhibits the necessary dependence of sal- 
vation upon the sacrifice so made, and upon the love, 
which prompted its being made. How urgent the convic- 
tion of obligation, how strong the sense of gratitude which 
must arise in the heart of the sinner thus saved ! And, 
what motive to action can be so effective as gratitude for 
great and undeserved kindness ? If gratitude to God, 
for His love, so unmerited, His gift, so stupendously 
great, His salvation, so indispensable to our well-being, 
move us not to "serve and please Him," what would 



540 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

be sufficient to do it? Surely, no motive would be 
sufficient ! 

Once more : salvation from sin opens up, before the 
believer, the prospect of "an inheritance incorruptible, 
undefiled and that fadeth not away," to be shared " with 
the saints in light," before the presence of an infinitely 
holy God, "where nothing that defileth, nor that is 
unclean — that worketh abomination or maketh a lie," 
can ever enter. For such an inheritance, in such an 
association and before such a Presence, who can fail to 
perceive the importance — the indispensable necessity of 
an appropriate preparation ? And, what a motive, to 
holy living, is, therefore, the hope of eternal life with 
God ! Hence, the sacred writer declares, that " he that 
hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as He is 
pure." The necessity of this is obvious, upon the plainest 
principles of social fitness. " Two cannot walk together, in 
harmony, unless they be agreed." " Light and darkness 
cannot dwell together." Now, no two opposite s can be 
more utterly antipodal than are sin and holiness : nor, is 
there any provision, in the Divine plan for the recovery 
of man, for the renovation or purification of man's moral 
nature, after " the pulse of life stands still." Wherefore, 
it is, and, by the sinner saved by faith in Christ, it is felt 
to be of supreme importance to his eternal well-being, that 
his moral preparation should be perfected during life. 
And, as the period of life is so entirely uncertain, what a 
spur is the hope of eternal life, to the believer, to give 
" all diligence, to make his calling and election sure !" 
Were it possible that the pure atmosphere of heaven 
should be polluted by the admission into it of an unsano 
tified sinner, what happiness could he enjoy ? All his 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 541 

moral tastes would be offended — in the eyes of his pure 
associates, he would be loathsome ; and he must constantly 
feel their purity a reproach to him. In such circumstances, 
would not hell itself be to him a refuge ? The experiment 
can never be tried ; but, let the impure and rebellious of 
heart be shut up to the society of the pure, the pious and 
the devout even here ; and, imperfect as will be the com- 
parison which he can make of his actual condition and his 
supposed one in heaven, he will not fail to find ample 
reason to deprecate an eternal residence among the holy 
ones, in the presence of a holy God. 

3. A third effect of salvation from sin, by faith in Christ, 
is a sense of peace with God. A sense of guilt induces 
disquiet, perturbation and fearful apprehensions, in the 
bosom where it rankles. That sense of guilt is an 
assurance that God — the infinitely wise, holy and power- 
ful God, is angry at the sinner — that all His infinite 
attributes and illimitable resources are pledged to his 
punishment. His conscience assures him that this is 
simply just — that he deserves to sustain this terrible 
relation to God. He has no peace with God — he has, 
moreover, no peace in himself. The higher and nobler 
faculties of his own nature rise up and condemn and 
denounce him. How miserable his condition ! But, sal- 
vation comes ! It removes his guilt. It hushes the 
clamor of conscience. It shows God reconciled to the 
sinner. It reconciles the sinner to himself. {i Being jus- 
tified by faith, he has peace with God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Not only are peaceful relations established 
between him and God, but he has, in consequence of his 
justification by faith, peace with God. How, then, does 
justification communicate or occasion this peace ? Could 



542 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

it have this effect, if the justification itself were unknown? 
We unhesitatingly answer it could not. Any operation 
or change, that exercises an influence upon the mind of 
man, and whose connection with the influence so exerted 
can be ascertained, must be known to have been performed 
or to have taken place, in order to the exertion of such 
influence. In all cases, we believe, in which our blessed 
Saviour, while upon earth, pardoned the sins of penitents, 
He announced to them, in clear and unequivocal terms, 
the fact of their being so pardoned. And, why should He 
have communicated a knowledge of the fact in the days 
of His flesh, and withhold it from those who are pardoned, 
now that He has withdrawn His personal presence from 
the earth ? Is the knowledge of pardon less important now 
than it was then 1 Or, can there be any difficulty in His 
imparting to the pardoned, an assured knowledge of their 
justification ? Can there be any difficulty in the way of 
Him, who dwells in the hearts of His people, in making 
them aware of His presence, and of the precise character 
of His operations upon them ? No ! Surely, there can 
be none whatever. Why, then, we repeat, should He 
withhold a knowledge of pardon, where He grants it, in 
these days ; whereas, in the days of His flesh, He always 
proclaimed the fact to those whose sins He pardoned ? 

But, it may be asked, ( If He do make known, to those 
who are justified, by faith, that that most important 
change has passed upon their relation to God, by what 
means does He communicate that knowledge ? Do they 
arrive at it by a process of reasoning upon their own 
mental phenomena and their moral state? Many con- 
tend that the only acquaintance with the fact, enjoyed by 
the justified, is the result of such a process. We do not 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 543 

wonder that these should repudiate the idea of assurance. 
or knozvledye; and restrain the privilege of Christians, in 
this respect, to a faint, hesitating persuasion, which they, 
strangely enough, denominate a hope. A hope that our 
sin is pardoned! That we are the children of God!! 
Does not hope always look to a future desirable event ? 
Can hope, without absurdity, be predicated of a past event, 
or of a present state ? We think not. To talk, therefore. 
of a hope that we are pardoned or justified, that we are 
children of God by adoption, that we have "passed from 
death unto life" — is to talk with utter disregard of the 
proper meaning of all language. So spake not the primi- 
tive Christians, of their religious experience — they knew: 
they ivere assured. And, how did they obtain their 
knowledge, their assurance ? Not by reasonings on their 
own state, nor by inferences from the promises of the 
Gospel; but, by means of the direct, explicit testimony 
of God, to them, of the fact, of which their knowledge and 
assurance were predicated. We say not that the state — 
the moral state of the believer does not indicate the fact 
of justification; or, that the promises of God do not war- 
rant the most confident inferences of that fact, where 
there is a certainty that the believer stands in that relation 
to God which is contemplated by those promises ; but, we 
do say, that our knowledge of our moral state is scarcely 
accurate enough, to warrant very great dependence on our 
reasonings from it; and, that there is hardly sufficient 
certainty in our knowledge of the relation in which we 
stand to God, to justify much confidence in the inference 
we may draw from the promises of God adapted to it, in 
regard to oiir justification. We conclude, therefore, that, 
as God can have no difficulty in communicating the fact 



544 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

of their justification to penitent believers — as it is of 
vast importance to the recipients of that benefit that they 
should know that they are so — and that as there are no 
other conceivable means by which they can obtain that 
knowledge, He does impart it to them directly, clearly 
and with certainty. This He does by the agency of the 
Holy Ghost, who comes into the world as the official 
"Comforter" of the followers of Christ. He "beareth 
witness with their spirits that they are the sons*' and 
daughters " of God." He " seals them," as belonging to 
God, " unto the day of redemption." " Sent forth into 
their hearts, crying Abba! Father!" He is the witness 
of their adoption into the household of God. He, it is, 
then, who brings, to the believing penitent, the assurance 
of pardon. He imparts the knowledge of justification. 
From this knowledge, as already intimated, peace flows, 
as a natural effect — peace with God and peace of con- 
science. The denunciations of wrath, by the Divine law, 
are silenced: the clamors of conscience are hushed; and 
the believer looks up, by faith, through Jesus Christ, to 
receive the approving smile of his so lately wrathful Sov- 
ereign. What a change ! How ineffably sweet the repose 
of soul experienced by him, who was so lately racked and 
torn by the consciousness of guilt, the assurance of Divine 
wrath and the apprehension of "everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His 
power," when he hears the unmistakable announcement, 
by the Holy Ghost, " Thy sins are forgiven thee !" Not 
calmer was the bosom of the Galilean lake, when the 
incarnate Divinity had arrested it, in its wildest commo- 
tion, and had said to it, in a voice which all creation must 
ever obey— "Peace, be still !" 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 545 

4. Another effect of salvation from sin, by faith in 
Christ, is hope — "hope of an inheritance incorruptible, 
undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven," 
for those who are thus saved. This hope is fully war- 
ranted by the fact of salvation from sin. The blessed 
Saviour says : " In my Father's house are many mansions: 
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go, to prepare 
a place for you. And, if I go and prepare a place for you, 
I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that, 
where I am, there ye may be also." — John xiv, 2, 3. And, 
St. Paul savs : " If we believe that Jesus died and roBe 
again, even so, them also that sleep in Jesus will God 

bring with Him Then we, which are alive and 

remain, shall be caught up together with them in the 
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever 
be with the Lord." — 1 Thessalonians iv, 14-17. St. Peter 
is very explicit, in his authorization of the hope in ques- 
tion: " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath 
begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, and undefiled, and that ladeth not away, reserved 
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, 
through faith, unto salvation." — 1 Peter i, 3-5. This is 
a hope " full of glory." A hope of being housed from all 
harm and danger forever — of happiness appropriate to 
the susceptibilities, and adequate to the capacities of the 
redeemed and immortal spirit — of association, in this 
felicity, with the good of all ages and all worlds, saints 
and martyrs, patriarchs, prophets and apostles, angels, 
seraphim and cherubim — of " seeing Jesus, as he is," in 
His glorified humanity, in His incarnated Divinity, bearing, 

35 



546 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

forever, in His sacred Person, the scars of His agon) r , the 
mementos of His wondrous love to man — of dwelling for- 
ever in the presence and under the smile of the glorious 
Trinity in Unity. 

5, From this hope, and, consequently, from the salva- 
tion from which it springs, results joy — "joy unspeakable 
and fall of glory." This is a higher species of enjoyment 
than peace. Joy excites, animates and exhilarates the 
soul. It is more highly appreciated, though really not of 
more importance than peace ; because it is more intensely 
felt ; because it more excites the soul ; because it more 
expands the bosom ; because it swells the heart with 
delightful emotions. The joy of Christian hope is rational, 
because it is well founded, and because its objects are 
worthy of the soul, both on account of their intrinsic 
excellence, and on account of their indestructible nature. 
Objects, of earth-bound hope, are never adequate to the 
capacities of the soul — always uncertain as to their min- 
istrations and evanescent in their duration. Hence, the 
joy of earthly hope must ever be dashed with apprehen- 
sions of disappointment and of loss. But, the joy, resulting 
from Christian hope, has no such apprehensions, to abate 
its influence upon the heart. It is, therefore, pure, 
soul-filling and exultant. Accurately adapted to the 
susceptibilities of the soul, and commensurate to her 
capacities, this joy never palls upon those susceptibilities 
- — never exhausts the energies of its subject — never 
ceases to be relished. Like the pure water, provided by 
the infinitely wise Creator, to slake the thirst and to 
resuscitate the wasted energies of animals, this joy is ever 
grateful to the taste ; and is so, because it is an original 
provision of Infinite Wisdom for the happiness of man. 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 547 

6. Triumph over the fear of death, is an effect of salva- 
tion from sin, by faith in Christ. The Christian can boast 
no stoical indifference at the approach of death. He, 
more than most others, appreciates the importance of that 
great change in the condition of man. He sees a most 
important connection between the events of life and its 
awful close. He knows that death sets the seal of change- 
less permanency on the human character, and, consequently, 
terminates forever the season of probation. He traces, 
too, the connection of death with man's future, eternal 
destiny — that that destiny becomes, in the moment of 
death, certain, unchangeable and eternal. He cannot, 
therefore, regard death as a light matter — as an event 
to be encountered with insensibility or unconcern. He 
regards it, accordingly, as of the gravest character, the 
highest concernment. The questions, in relation to it, 
which mainly interest him, are, " whether his work of pro- 
bation has been well performed?" Whether his u calling 
and election" to eternal life, have been made "sure?" 
Whether he has been " made meet for the inheritance of 
the saints in light?" Whether he is " saved from sin, 
through faith in Christ ?" Satisfied in these matters, he 
looks upon death as no longer the " king of terrors." He 
has become rather a messenger of good tidings. He hails 
his approach as that of a friend, to release him from the 
cares and sorrows, the infirmities and sufferings of this 
life, and to be his assured, though rough and hideous-look- 
ing usher, into the presence-chamber of his God and 
Saviour. Hence, he can calmly and serenely resign him- 
self to the offices to be performed upon him by death, in 
order to his release from earth, and his introduction into 
the realms of eternal blessedness. What wonder, then. 



548 SALVATION BY FAITH. 

if with surprise and exultation, he should apostrophize 
death in the language of St. Paul ? " 0, Death ! where 
is thy sting ?" He has been disarmed of that terrible 
weapon — for, it is sin; and, he, who is saved from sin, 
meets death disarmed and subdued. Well, then, may the 
Christian close his career with the shout of victory, and 
with devout gratitude to Him, who has caused him to 
triumph — " Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

These effects of salvation from sin, through faith in 
Christ, are all realized in this life ; and they have been 
exemplified, in thousands of instances, in the experience 
of penitent believers in Jesus Christ. Indeed, they have 
never failed to result from salvation by faith, in exact pro- 
portion to the measure and the energy of the faith, by 
which that salvation was achieved. But, there is one 
effect, or, perhaps, more properly, consequence, that will 
follow upon this salvation, which can have its development 
only in that state of immortality and purely spiritual 
existence which awaits man beyond the grave. This 
consequence shall be seen, in its perfect development, 
when " the nations of them which are saved shall walk in 
the light" of the " holy City, New Jerusalem," which John 
saw "coming down from God out of heaven;" whose inhabi- 
tants shall be so honored and blessed as to have " God to 
dwell with them" — to be "His people," and to have Him 
to "be their God." To them, there shall be "no more 
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be 
any more pain." There, in the full fruition of the hope, 
which prompted them to a holy life, while they were in 
their state of trial, " they shall walk in white," before the 
presence of the Holy One, " for they are worthy." They 



SALVATION BY FAITH. 549 

shall mingle with the hosts of the redeemed, and with the 
ministering hosts, of higher orders, who have " kept their 
first estate," in the soul-ravishing worship and praise, 
which are rendered unintermittingly to God and the Lamb 
forever. Noble employment ! Pure, elevated, soul-filling 
felicity ! Worthy of God to confer, adequate to the capa- 
city of man to enjoy is this perennial blessedness, to which 
those, who are saved from sin by faith, shall be admitted, 
and in which they shall be guaranteed an ample participa- 
tion, while God shall sit upon His throne, and eternity 
roll her never-ceasing round I 0, what folly, what mad- 
ness to neglect a salvation, so fruitful in most important 
results in this life, and so indispensable to eternal blessed- 
ness in the life to come ! How promptly, how diligently, 
how perseveringly should every fallen child of Adam seek 
this salvation, so dearly purchased for us by Christ, so 
kindly offered to us in the Gospel of His grace ! May 
God enable and incline us all to be " wise unto salvation," 
that we may "lay hold on eternal life !" Amen ! 



DISCOURSE XVII. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 



He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteoa* 
ness, by that man whom He hath ordained. — Acts xvii, 31. 

In times of greater simplicty and of less intellectual 
hardihood than the present, the bare announcement of the 
text would have been sufficient to prevent all question of 
the necessity or of the forthcoming of a general judgment 
of mankind, with a view to their final destiny. But, the 
age in which we live is so profoundly rational in its views, 
so confident in its perspicacity and so untrammeled by 
implicit deference to any authority — even the Divine — 
that, in the face of the text, and of many other clear 
declarations of Revelation to the same effect, there are 
many — Christians! who querulously inquire what neces- 
sity there is for such a judgment. And, there are others, 
a little more daring, who roundly deny that there ever will 
be such a judgment; because, forsooth, no necessity exists 
that there should be one ! Now, all this is very different, 
we apprehend, from an humble and reverential inquiry into 
the purpose of the general judgment — admitted, without 
question, on the authority of Revelation, to have been 
appointed by the Supreme Ruler of the world. This 
latter, we conceive, is a becoming and useful employment 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 551 

of the rational faculties with which we are endowed — 
the former, we esteem a wholly unjustifiable boldness — 
indeed, a profane exhibition of audacity, in those who 
profess to accredit the Divine Revelation of those Scrip- 
tures, in which the announcement of such a day of genera! 
judgment is so clearly, so solemnly and so frequently 
made. 

When it is said, that " God hath appointed a day, in 
which He will judge the world in righteousness," we are 
by no means to understand that the judgment of the 
world will occupy only twenty-four hours. The Scriptures 
are familiar with a much more liberal signification of the 
term day. Thus : our Saviour says to the Jews : " Your 
father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it 
and was glad." He certainly did not mean to say that 
Abraham rejoiced to see any particular twenty-four hours 
of the Saviour's life, but its whole course, for the redemp- 
tion of mankind, from His incarnation till His return to 
the right hand of the Majesty on high — the whole term 
of His saving mission among men. Again : when the 
Saviour weeps over Jerusalem and says : " Oh, that thou 
hadst known, even thou, at least, in this thy day, the 
things that belong to thy peace ! " He, surely, has not 
in view any particular twenty-four hours, in which their 
privileges were so precious, but the whole season of His 
ministry among them. So, the day appointed for the 
judgment of the world, may, for aught we know, be equal 
in duration to a thousand years — it will certainly be a 
term of sufficient length for the transaction of that great 
business. Nor, will there be any hardship in the attend- 
ance required, during any length to which the term may 
be extended ; as the parties concerned will be spiritual 



552 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

and immortal in their natures, needing no respite from 
watchfulness or activity, nor, consequently, requiring the 
vicissitudes of light and darkness. Of the probable length 
of the term of judgment, we have, and can have no 
knowledge; nor have we any interest in knowing. It is 
enough for us to know that God hath appointed such a 
day or term, that it will certainly come and that it will be 
of sufficient duration for the accomplishment of the pur- 
pose for which it was appointed. 

This assumed, we shall, in accordance with the views 
presented above, inquire into the necessity of such a judg- 
ment, by way of introduction to what we have to say in 
regard to that judgment itself; and, 

1. A general judgment of mankind is by no means 
necessary to the authority of the Divine decision, in any 
individual case. God's right or authority to judge men 
rests upon, His relation to them, as their benevolent Crea- 
tor, who endued them with powers to know, to love, to 
enjoy and to obey Him; and, who, consequently, has a 
clear and an indubitable right to hold them responsible for 
the exercise, neglect or perversion of these powers. This 
right, to hold them responsible, infers the right of entering 
into judgment with them in any manner, public or private, 
individually or in masses, as He may choose; and His 
judgment would be as valid and as effective, so far as the 
individual is concerned, if covered from the eye of every 
other creature, as if it were exhibited before the congre- 
gation of all worlds. 

2. Nor, is such a judgment necessary to secure a 
righteous sentence from the Judge. He is so utterly 
remote from all dependence, on all without His own infi- 
nitely perfect nature, that He needs the presence of no 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 553 

witnesses to render Him regardful of the claims of justice 
towards those whose cases He adjudicates. These would 
be equally sacred with Him, if the adjudication were to 
take place in the solitude of a cavern, shrouded by the 
darkness of midnight, as if it took place in meridian light, 
before an assembled universe. 

3. Neither is a general judgment necessary to ascertain, 
to the individual judged, the character or the justice of 
the sentence awarded to him, whether of condemnation or 
approval, whether for weal or woe. All this could be as 
effectually accomplished in a private as in a public, in an 
individual as in a general judgment. Nay, we have reason 
to believe that every individual of the human family, 
so soon as his accountable career is closed, enters upon his 
final destiny, with a perfect assurance of the justice of the 
fate assigned to him. The story of the rich man and 
Lazarus, seems to put this beyond all question. So far, 
then, as justice to the individual, or his own perfect satis- 
faction that he has received such justice is concerned, a 
general and public adjudication is not necessary. 

4. But, a public adjudication, in the case of every indi- 
vidual to be judged, is necessary, that a manifestation of 
the righteousness of their fate may be made to their 
fellow-creatures. Man, we know, and other intelligent 
and moral beings, we presume, were formed for society. 
Society involves the fact of reciprocal influence; and, 
therefore, whatever is important to any one member of a 
society, must have more or less interest for all the mem- 
bers of such society. How profound the interest, then, 
with which the whole human race must regard the eternal 
destiny of each individual of that race! We have reason 
given us, in the Word of God, to believe that creatures 



554 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

of a higher order than man share, in this social feeling, 
with the human family. It may, therefore, be regarded as 
necessary to the social relation of man to man, and that 
of other intellectual and moral beings to the human 
family, that the adjudication of the case of each indi- 
vidual should be in the presence and subject to the 
scrutiny of all intellectual and moral beings. This can 
hardly be deemed practicable on any other supposition 
than that the whole intellectual and moral world should be 
assembled at the time and place designated for the adju- 
dication of all, lying under the same responsibility to the 
universalJudge — in the language of the text, that there 
should be "a day, in the which He will judge the world 
in righteousness." We know that, throughout the whole 
Sacred Volume, God is represented as being solicitous to 
declare — to make manifest, to His intellectual and moral 
creatures, the benevolence, the truth and the righteousness 
of His character and government. This solicitude, cannot 
have for its object any personal interest of His own; for, 
He is infinitely above the praise or censure of His crea- 
tures. The object, then, must be that, by presenting to 
them, in His own person, an instance of moral perfection, 
He* might prompt His intellectual and moral creatures to 
emulate such excellence, and, thereby, secure their own 
individual and social well-being. And, if this solicitude 
is evinced in regard to the current administration of the 
Divine government, and the exhibition of the Divine 
character, during the vicissitudes of a transient state, in 
which change is constant experience, may we not reasona- 
bly suppose that it will prevail in a still higher degree, in 
regard to the awards of eternal and changeless destiny? 
To render more apparent the necessity of this public 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 555 

adjudication of human character and doom, we shall make 
a few suppositions, the probability of which will not, we 
presume, be questioned. We shall suppose, then, a pious 
wife, whose affections and life are consecrated to God — 
whose husband is amiable and affectionate; but, who has 
only religion enough to permit his wife to suppose that his 
estimable qualities are the fruits of piety. She dies in 
the triumph of faith, and in a cheering persuasion of his 
piety, and a consequent hope that he will follow her to 
the regions of blessedness. But, alas! he follows her not 
thither, having neglected to make religion the business 
of his life, as she made it the business of her's. How 
important that the wife, at least, should witness the adju- 
dication of his case, that she may be able to do justice to 
its righteousness! 

We suppose, next, a minister of the Gospel, learned, 
eloquent, orthodox and zealous. Crowds attend his min- 
istry, and are deeply — many of them, probably, savingly 
impressed by it. None, perhaps, entertain any doubt of 
his personal piety; as his life is in unimpeachable con- 
sistency with his vocation, so far, at least, as it is subject 
to public observation. Indeed, he himself may " lay the 
flattering unction to his soul," that he is a child of God, 
and an heir of immortal felicity and glory. When, there- 
fore, he shall appear before the righteous Judge, and shall 
exhibit his claims to approbation and reward — "I have 
eaten and drunken in Thy presence — in Thy name have 
I cast out Devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful 
works — Thou hast taught in our streets; and I have 
repeated Thy teachings with careful exactitude and with 
impressive earnestness and zeal" — how surprised must 
he himself be — how utterly confounded must be the 



556 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

thousands, who hung, with admiration, upon his thrilling 
Gospel ministry, while he so eloquently preached the word 
of salvation on earth, when they shall hear the righteous 
Judge pronounce sentence of irrepealable banishment 
against him, accompanied by the announcement of the 
previously unimagined fact — "I never knew you!" And, 
how important, to a just appreciation of the righteous 
judgment of God, in his case, that the adjudication of that 
case should be open to public observation and scrutiny! 

One more supposition we bring forward — it is of one, 
who, during the whole of life, exhibited so much of eccen- 
tricity, irregularity and imperfection as to render his 
profession of religion exceedingly equivocal to all who 
were acquainted with him. The enemies of religion took 
a malignant pleasure in pointing out, especially to those 
who were just entering upon a course of piety, the many 
and striking incongruities between his life and a course of 
intelligent consistent piety. Religious people were scan- 
dalized by the discrepancies in his profession and practice, 
and felt that the cause of piety, if not absolutely disgraced, 
was, at least, not honored by his adhesion to it. And, 
neither in life nor in death, did he afford, to the most 
clear-sighted observers, evidence, upon which they could 
rely with confidence, to prove whether he were a hypocrite 
or an honest-hearted Christian. When, therefore, he shall 
be found among the saved, how important will it be that 
the adjudication of his case shall be open to public inspec- 
tion, that the judgment may be seen to be in righteousness! 
These suppositious cases are but types of innumerable 
classes of cases, which, unless publicly adjudicated, would 
not fail to reflect on the righteousness of the Divine gov- 
ernment, in the estimation of those who, from the 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 557 

imperfection of their information, can "judge only from 
appearance." We conclude, therefore, that, in order to 
the "manifestation of the righteous judgment of God," it 
is necessary that the judgment of every man should be 
public ; and, that, to render this practicable, there must 
be a simultaneous gathering of the whole human race for 
the purpose — in other words, that the judgment, in order 
to be public^ must be general 

We shall now consider some of the antecedents of the 
judgment, a connection between which and that stupen- 
dous event is established by the sacred Scriptures. 

1. The first of these, which we shall notice, is that the 
offer of eternal salvation will have been made to all men. 
The Psalmist, when he characterizes the throne of the 
Judge, takes care to inform us that " Mercy and Truth 
go before His face ;" and, in connection with our text, the 
apostle informs his auditors, that, " now, He commandeth 
all men everywhere to repent ; because He hath appointed 
a day," etc. Elsewhere, we are taught, by the blessed 
Saviour, that "the Gospel of the kingdom must be 
preached in all nations," before the end shall come. Not, 
ihen, till the last child of Adam's fallen, but redeemed 
race shall have had an available offer of eternal life, shall 
that day of destiny dawn upon our world. It will not be 
necessary, in order to this, that the Gospel shall be 
preached in form "to every creature under heaven." 
The Gospel was preached to the " spirits in prison, in the 
days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing." It was 
also preached to the Israelites in the days of Moses ; for, 
the apostle, speaking of them, says : " To us was the 
Gospel preached as well as unto them." It is enough, if 
the intention of the Gospel, in offering salvation to the 



&58 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT, 

sinner, be carried into effect, no matter by what means it 
is done. " They who have not the law," (by a parity of 
reason, the Gospel,) " are a law" (a Gospel) " unto them- 
selves - f and show the works of the law" (Gospel) " written 
upon their hearts — their conscience bearing them witness, 
and their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing, or else 
excusing one another :" so that, "in every nation, he that 
feareth Him, and worketh righteousness is accepted with 
Him." And, we hesitate not to affirm that, ere the 
coming of the Day of Judgment, Christ will, in an availa- 
ble manner, have offered Himself to every child of man, 
as " a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and 
remission of sins." Never will He give up His vineyard, 
to the consuming fires of the great day, till He can say : 
" What more could I have done to my vineyard, that I 
have not done in it ?" When the " Mercy of our Lord 
Jesus Christ unto eternal life," and the " Truth which is 
after godliness," and by which God sanctifies the soul, 
shall have exerted their influence towards human salva- 
tion, so far as is compatible with human agency, then, and 
not till then, will Christ "deliver up the (mediatorial) 
kingdom to God, even the Father." Then, and not 
before, will the human race be ripe for the judgment of 
God in righteousness. We argue this, in perfect confi- 
dence, from the well-established facts, that Christ "gave 
Himself a ransom for all men" — " tasted death for every 
man" — will have all men to be saved, and come to the 
knowledge of the truth ;" for, it were grossly preposterous 
to affirm all this of Him, if He, who alone can do it, do 
not afford to every man an available offer of the salvation 
purchased by Him for every man, and which He wills all 
men to obtain. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 559 

2. The establishment and exhibition of the throne of 
Judgment are the next antecedent of the great assize to 
which we shall direct attention. Where that throne will 
be set up, we have no positive information. We think it 
cannot be upon the earth or in the visible heavens ; for, 
we are expressly instructed that these shall both " flee 
from His presence ;" and, this, we presume, is affirmed 
of His "coming to judge the world in righteousness." But, 
wherever established, it will be a most conspicuous object — 
as " a city set upon a hill." Its stupendous elevation and 
dazzling splendor will render it visible to the whole 
universe ; and its attractive influence will draw to it all 
intellectual and moral existence. Space, infinite space, will 
probably be the scene of this great transaction, without any 
landmark known to the inferior events of time, to indicate 
its topographical situation. The throne to be erected is, 
in the sacred Scriptures, characterized as a " great white 
throne," and its "habitation" declared to be "justice and 
judgment." We understand, from both these evidently 
tropical representations, that the business to be transacted, 
from this seat of supreme authority, is one of pure and 
unmixed justice. Hitherto, the Saviour of sinners is seen 
occupying a "throne of grace" — a "mediatorial seat, at 
the right-hand of the Father," there to make intercession 
for sinners ; and thence to issue pardon and supplies of 
the grace, needful for salvation. Now, His throne of 
judgment is prepared, whence no grace, no pardon will 
proceed, but justice, pure, strict, unmitigated justice. 
Before, or beside that throne, there will be " no patron, 
intercessor none !" No plea for mercy, no application 
for grace will be admitted — no respite from merited 
doom, for further trial, be granted ; but an exact apprecia- 



560 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

tion of character, and a rigorously just distribution of 
rewards will go forth from this seat of righteous retribution, 
both to the righteous and the wicked. 

3. The third antecedent of the judgment, claiming 
attention, is the taking of His seat, on the throne, by the 
righteous Judge. And, who is the Personage, who lays 
claim, allowed claim to that stupendous dignity ? It is 
the Son of Man 1 It is He, who was born in a stable, at 
Bethlehem ! It is He, who was hurried away to Egypt> 
in His infancy, to preserve Him from the furious jealousy 
of ambitious Herod ! It is He, who, through a life of 
thirty-three years, was a " man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief;" whose poverty exceeded that of the foxes 
and of fowls of the air ! It is He, who was " despised 
and rejected of men!" — "who "submitted His face to 
shame and spitting, and His back to the smiters!" — who 
died the ignominious and cruel death of the cross — a 
death awarded only to a slave ! Yes : this is the same ! 
but, oh, how changed ! "His visage, once so marred more 
than that of any other man," is too glorious now to be 
beheld, with open face, by even the strongest-sighted 
.seraphim, that dwell in the circle of glory that surrounds 
the throne of the Eternal Brightness. Before the insuf- 
ferable glory and majesty of that once dishonored face, 
the heavens and the earth flee away, and no place is 
found for them. Yes! it is the meek, the humble, the 
persecuted, the crucified Jesus, who, with such overpower- 
ing Majesty, now occupies the throne of final and universal 
judgment. So our text, and many other portions of the 
sacred Scriptures assure us. And, well is He qualified 
to exercise the functions of His high office ! As man, 
He knows what was in man — his capabilities, his weak- 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 561 

nesses, his temptations. He can, therefore, from "a 
feeling of our infirmities," allow for unavoidable failures, 
as well as determine what could have been done in any 
case of duty in question. As God, He has known, 
minutely, the whole tenor of the life of every man — not 
its great historic events merely, but every obscure, 
unnoted act, every heedless or whispered word, every 
vagrant but indulged imagination. These all go to the 
formation of character ; and these will all be, consequently, 
taken into account, in the judgment of the great day. 
Infinite moral excellence will secure from the Judge an 
impartial investigation and a righteous decision* No 
selfish interest, no blind partiality or prejudice, no corrupt 
influence can bias the current of justice, administered by 
Jehovah Jesus. " The Judge of all the earth will do right." 
Attendant on the Judge, as ministers of His will, the 
hosts of heaven will descend with Him. Circle within 
circle and rank above rank, they will surround the seat 
supreme. Imagination faints under the vain attempt to 
conceive of the splendor of this glorious cortege. The 
purity of cherubim, the brightness and intense ardor of 
seraphim, veiled in humble self-oblivion, bow reverently 
before the presence of His glory. The mild majesty of 
Gabriel, the frequent and benign internuncio between God 
and man, before whom the holy and magnanimous Daniel 
fainted and became dumb with awe, who announced to 
the wondering Virgin the honor God was about to confer 
upon her, in rendering her by miraculous influence, the 
mother of the Son of God, — Gabriel, as is his high privi- 
lege, stands now as he has ever been accustomed to stand, 
in the presence of the Divine Majesty, alert to fly to the 
ends of the universe to execute the Divine behests. 

36 



562 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

And, Michael, the archangel, prince of the celestial hosts, 
is there, towering in majesty unrivaled by that of any 
created being. Still, even his majesty is but derived and 
subordinate, paling before the brightness of the " excellent 
glory" of " Him that sitteth upon the throne." These, 
with all the subordinate ranks of the celestial hierarchy, 
stand around the judgment-seat of the King Messiah, to 
receive and execute, with the promptitute of swift obedi- 
ence, the orders which He shall issue. 

4. The fourth antecedent of the judgment, to which 
attention will be directed, is the bringing before the judg- 
ment-seat of the parties to be judged, on this great 
occasion. Summoned from their dark prison-house, and 
impelled by an influence or a force which they cannot 
resist, the Devil and his angels are arraigned before the 
bar of the righteous Judge. "Reserved," since they 
left their first estate, by transgression of the law of their 
Creator and Sovereign, " in chains, under darkness," for 
this day of final adjudication, and retribution, the} r now 
cower beneath the eye of their Judge, and await from 
Him the doom which their iniquity has deserved, and 
which they sadly anticipate will consign them to the fierce 
rage of everlasting burnings. 

And, now, " the voice of the archangel and the tramp 
of God have been heard, summoning Adam and Eve, with 
all their innumerable posterity, to "stand before God." 
The voice of this summons has sounded to the depths of 
Old Ocean, penetrated the solid marble walls of the 
mausoleum and the massive piles of mound and pyramid 
and has entered the ear of Death ; and, wherever it has 
-entered, it has awaked the dead from their long and 
heavy slumber. Starting up; and, now, spiritual and 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 563 

immortal, as well in body as in soul, they have followed 
the sound of the summons toward the judgment-seat 
Meantime, those who had lived on, to this day of wonders, 
pass, without the process of death, into the condition of 
those who have been just raised from the dead. The 
power which could restore life to the dead, could, as 
readily operate a change, upon the living, that would 
bring them, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," 
into the same state, of spirituality and immortality, into 
which the dead had been raised. And, now, man, in his 
entire nature, soul and body — man, in all his thousand 
generations, from Adam to his last descendant — man, 
immortal as when he was created, and, therefore, capable 
of eternal destinies — man stands before God, to be judged 
and rewarded for " the deeds done in the body, whether 
they have been good, or whether they have been evil." 
No class of mankind will be excused from an appearance 
before this impartial tribunal. Indeed, the distinctions, 
that were deemed so important on earth, will now be 
remembered only as they exerted a moral influence, for 
good or evil. Kings and emperors will stand on a perfect 
level with the most squalid beggar, that trailed out a 
miserable existence in their dominions, so far as rank and 
consequence are concerned ; and, the most refined votaries 
of fashion will have no higher claims to consideration, than 
the most uncultivated and boorish of their race, upon 
whom they looked with scorn or ridicule. All are equals, 
in the eye of the Judge and in their relation to the 
judgment. Only man will be taken account of — the 
adventitious circumstances of life will be wholly disregarded. 
Moral distinctions alone will affect the position and well- 
being of man, at the judgment- bar of God. 



564 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

We now proceed to consider the process of the 
judgment. 

1. The first act, in this beyond measure important and 
interesting transaction, is the opening of the books. St. 
John says : " I saw a great white throne and Him that 
sat thereon, from whose face the earth and the heavens 
fled away, and there was found no plaee for them. And 
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and 
the books were opened, and another book was opened, 
which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out 
of those things which were written in the books, according 
to their works." There is evidently a distinction intended 
between "the booh, which were opened," and the other 
"book which was opened, which was the book of life ;" and 
it is, we think, of the former that it is said, " the dead 
were judged out of those things that were written in the 
books." We think so ; because it would seem that the 
book of life is exclusively a register of those who shall be 
approved in the judgment, and who shall, therefore, escape 
the punishment of the wicked : whereas, the dead, without 
distinction, are "judged out of those things that are 
written in the books.' 1 What, then, are we to understand 
by the books, and by their being opened ? There is, 
doubtless a reference to a practice, common — perhaps 
nearly universal — of producing, in courts of law, the laws 
governing the cases which are to be tried, and of explain- 
ing and showing the bearing of those laws. By the books, 
we understand the various dispensations of grace and law 
under which men have lived ; and by the opening of the 
books we understand a full and clear exposition of the 
extent of their requirements, whether greater or less, and 
of the nice adaptation of those requirements to the 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 565 

circumstances in which the subjects of those dispensations 
respectively were placed. A thousand scriptures instruct 
us that the same rule of judgment will net be applied to 
him who has lived in the darkness of heathenism, and to 
him upon whom the effulgence of Gospel-light has been 
poured forth. And, what we are thus taught by the 
Scriptures, is in accordance with the common-sense appre- 
hension of equal justice, found in all men whose minds 
have not been stultified by some overmastering pre- 
conception — some dogma of a creed, adopted without a 
full knowledge of all its bearings. It would be palpably 
unjust to judge a man, whose entire acquaintance with 
the Divine economy was summed in the Noachic precepts, 
by the same rule by which Abraham, and those enlightened 
by the revelations made to him, would be righteously 
judged; as it would to judge Abraham and his cotempo- 
raries by the rule governing in the case of one to whom 
" the law was given by Moses." Still more flagrant would 
be the injustice of holding a disciple of Moses amenable 
to the rule deciding the case of one to whom the Saviour 
has " brought life and immortality to light, by the Gospel." 
Admitting these views to be correct, how important to a 
just appreciation of the judgment of God, upon the men 
who have lived in such varied circumstances of enlighten- 
ment and privilege, that these varied circumstances should 
be made plain to the apprehension of all who shall witness 
that judgment ! And, this is what w T e understand by the 
opening of the books, out of which men are to be judged. 
By this means, the rule governing in the adjudication of 
all the various classes, and, when necessary, in the pecu- 
liarities of individual cases, will be rendered apparent to 
every witness of the judicial proceedings of the great day; 



566 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT, 

and, all will, thereby, be enabled, so far as the law of each 
case is concerned, to judge of the equity of the proceed- 
ings. It is true, that the essential principles of the rule 
of judgment, under all the various dispensations, are the 
same, whatever difference in modification and extent of 
requirement may distinguish the rule under those various 
dispensations. Love to God and conformity to His known 
will, and kindness and beneficence to fellow-creatures are, 
we believe, those essential principles. 

2. The second act, in these important judicial proceed- 
ings, is the ascertaining of the life's history which belongs 
to every human being who stands before God in judgment. 
We do not mean by ascertaining this history, the bringing 
of it to the knowledge of the Judge. This were wholly 
needless; as there has never been, in the life of one 
individual of the human race, a single act, no matter how 
obscure or apparently unimportant, a word, however heed- 
lessly uttered, or an indulged thought, how vagrant and 
fruitless soever, to which He has not been an attentive 
witness, or which has faded from His remembrance. He 
has ever been "about their bed and about their path, 
spying out all their ways;" and "the thoughts of His 
heart are to all generations." Nor, probably, is it neces- 
sary to ascertain life's history with a view to remind the 
adjudged of what they themselves have been or have 
done. If " death-beds are detectors of the heart," if they 
often arouse a vivid recollection of long-forgotten scenes 
in life, what may we not suppose will be the effect of the 
judgment-solemnities, in arraying before each man the 
whole history of his life — a history upon which eternal 
destiny is to depend ! Is it not probable that the mind, 
quickened to immortal energy, will, in a very brief space 



JHE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 567 

of time, retrace the whole of life's progress, and call up 
every event, evtry action, every word and every thought, 
which is to exert an influence on the decision of a fate so 
important and so changeless as that which awaits every 
one before the judgment-seat? But, however fully and 
minutely the Judge may know the life's history of every 
one before Him for judgment, and, however accurately 
each individual may know his own life's history, yet, in 
order to the "revelation of the righteous judgment of 
God," to the assembled universe, it is necessary that the 
life's history of all the judged should be made publicly 
known. By what process this will be effected, we are not 
informed. The all-cognizant Judge may declare the his- 
tory of all — or each individual may be constrained to relate 
his own history — or associates in life may be required and 
compelled to testify, to the extent of their knowledge, in 
regard to each other. We have some reasons to suppose 
that all these means, of bringing man to the knowledge 
of the universe, will be employed. But, whatever the 
means employed, the thing will be done, and done effectu- 
ally. Every veil will be torn off: every disguise will be 
stripped away — modest merit will come forth from its 
retirement — proud pretension will be reduced to its 
intrinsic value — the sheep's clothing will be torn from 
the back of the hypocrite, and he shall stand forth a wolf 
confessed. Every action of life will be seen in immediate 
connection with the motive by which it was prompted. 
Pride will no longer receive the honor due to zeal for the 
glory of God or to benevolence towards man. Bigotry 
and sectarian zeal will no longer be permitted to clothe 
themselves in the garb of piety and devotion to God. 
Man will be seen in his true character. Nor,, let it be 



568 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

supposed that the great events of life will alone be brought 
to light on this day. In the lives of most men, these are 
very few; and, in none, do they exert an equal influence, 
on the formation of character and the determination of 
destiny, with the unnoted tenor of every-day habits of 
feeling and action. Often, it happens that a thought 
indulged, a train of conversation pursued or a course of 
action persisted in, which attracts very little attention 
from observers or even from the individual himself, has 
much more to do in determining the course of future life, 
in giving color to character and fate, than the most striking 
events which befall us, or the most arduous enterprises we 
may achieve. These, then, will not be omitted, in the 
revelations of human life and character, at the bar of final 
retribution. And, it is not improbable that many will find, 
in that day, that their character and destiny have been 
mainly determined by idle day-dreams and purposeless 
speculations, which were regarded as of little or no impor- 
tance when they were indulged in. Habits of thinking 
and currents of passion have been thus formed and 
strengthened, which have been operative upon the whole 
of after-life. 

3. The third act, in the process of judgment, will be a 
comparing of the actions of men with the requirements 
of the dispensations, under which they have respectively 
lived; and, thereby, determining whether those actions 
have been good or evil. This comparison, now that the 
various dispensations of the Divine Government have 
been opened up and rendered clear to all, exhibiting, in 
all its extent and bearings, the rule of judgment arising 
under each, and now that the history of each man's life is 
exhibited in exact detail, will be a task of easy perform- 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 569 

ance. It will be seen, at a glance, whether there has or 
has not been a conformity of life to the requirements of 
the dispensations, under which the parties adjudged have 
respectively lived. Take the Christian as an example, 
the rather because we live under the Christian dispensa- 
tion, and shall, consequently, be judged by the rule arising 
under that dispensation. The requirements of that dis- 
pensation were that men should examine the Scriptures 
with searching carefulness, that they might know the 
things which belong to their peace: — that, convinced, by 
the truthful representations of those Scriptures, of the 
sinfulness of their hearts and lives, they should repent 
towards God, against whom they had sinned : — that, unable 
to offer any satisfaction for their sins that were past, and, 
seeing, in the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ, a 
sufficiency of merit to render full satisfaction, and a readi- 
ness to appropriate that merit to that purpose, they should 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, with firm trust and con- 
fidence, for present pardon and acceptance with God: — 
that, being "justified by faith," by a faith which "worketh 
by love, purifying the heart," they should now "grow in 
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," 
till they should attain to " the mark for the prize of their 
high calling, and be filled with all the fullness of God:" — 
that, being thus "created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works," they should "glorify God, in their body and in 
their spirit which are God's:" — that they should, to the 
utmost of their opportunity, "do good unto all men, 
especially unto them who are of the household of faith;" 
— and, that, finally, they, "by patient continuance in well 
doing," by being "faithful unto death," by "enduring 
unto the end," should " make their calling and election 



570 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

sure." These requirements, embracing a thousand subor- 
dinate details, will furnish the rule by which those who 
have lived under the Christian dispensation will be judged; 
and, with this rule the life's history of all such will be 
brought into comparison, and thus it will be seen who shall 
have been and who shall not have been conformed to the 
requirements, which, under that dispensation, were imposed 
upon them. Those who shall be found to have been thus 
conformed will meet the approval of the Judge ; and those 
who shall not be so found, will meet His condemnation. 
Thus, too, with regard to those who have lived under other 
and inferior dispensations, — as they shall be found to have 
been conformed to the requirements of those dispensa- 
tions, or refractory against them, they shall be approved 
or condemned, by the righteous Judge, in that day. 

4. The fourth act of the judgment will be the separation 
of the good from the bad — the approved from the con- 
demned. Two classes will divide between them the vast 
multitude of the human race — the righteous and the wicked. 
In each of these classes, there will be striking differences 
in the degree in which the predominating quality of the 
classes to which they respectively belong has prevailed ; 
and, in proportion to the degree in which that quality has 
prevailed, will be the measure of the reward or punishment 
awarded to them. But, whatever the differences in degree 
of qualification, every child of Adam is prepared to occupy 
a place in one or other of these classes, and will be assigned 
to the class for which his qualification has prepared him. 

In the class of the righteous will be found a large pro- 
portion of the human race, whose assignment to it will 
have no reference to what they have done; for, they 
never did or could do either moral good or evil. Their 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 571 

place, in this class, is secured to them solely by what 
Christ did for them, and what the Spirit of all grace did 
in them, without any co-operation on their part. We 
speak, of course, of that part of the human family who 
died before they could choose between good and evil, as 
such, and, consequently, before they could be responsible 
for their actions. The whole of Adam's race were involved 
in a "judgment unto condemnation," by the original 
offense : but, through Christ, "the free gift, unto justifica- 
tion of life, came upon them;" and, in that state of 
justification of life, they continue, of course, until they 
take themselves out of it by personal transgression. 
Hence, the blessed Saviour, speaking of infants, says: 
" Of such is the kingdom of heaven." All who die in 
this state, will, therefore, in the day of judgment, be 
found in the " congregation of the righteous." 

The rest of mankind will be assigned to a place, in 
these classes, " according as their works shall have been, 
whether good or bad." No former position, of high or 
low, no previous associations, no matter how intimate and 
endeared, or how repugnant and hostile, will exercise any 
influence upon the question of such assignment. Hus- 
bands and wives, who have loved each other more than 
life, if of different moral qualifications, will be assigned to 
the classes to which their respective qualifications have 
fitted them. Parents and children, whose affections to 
each other, while on earth, were most fervent and most 
enduring, will, if they differed in regard to their con- 
formity to the will of God, be ranged differently on this 
day, according to their several moral affinities. Ministers 
and their congregations will not always enter all together 
into the same class. Too often, probably, will the nun- 



572 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

ister be found to have been unfaithful to his "high 
calling," or to have " given place to the Devil," so, as 
that, " after preaching to others, he has become himself a 
castaway." In such cases, while the dishonored minister 
takes his position in the class of the wicked, those of his 
congregation who have "walked worthy of God," are 
numbered among the righteous. On the other hand, it 
will, doubtless, occur, in very many instances, that the 
faithful minister, while he enters the class of the righteous, 
will see many whom, while on earth, he instructed, warned, 
exhorted and entreated and over whom he often wept and 
prayed, taking up their position in the class of the wicked. 
The separations of this day, unless human sensibilities 
shall have undergone an almost inconceivable change, will 
occasion scenes of sorrow and anguish previously never 
even imagined by man. The heart now sickens at the 
thought of them, imperfectly as they can be conceived. 
Be the fact as it may with regard to the righteous, we 
know that sorrow and anguish will have place in the 
hearts of the wicked, from seeing themselves excluded 
from the bliss of heaven, to which others are admitted 
before their eyes. Our Saviour warns the wicked Jews 
of His day, that there should be " weeping and gnashing 
of teeth," when they should see Abraham, and Isaac and 
Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and 
they themselves thrust out." And, if the admission of 
these remote, though admired objects of their affection 
and reverence into the kingdom of God, and their own 
exclusion from it, would excite such grief and agony of 
soul, what may we reasonably suppose would be the sorrow 
and anguish that must thrill their souls, when they should 
see the mother that bare and nourished them, the father 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 573 

whom they reverenced, the children of their own bowels 
and dear to them as the life-drops that nourish the heart, 
the long and tenderly-loved wife or husband, led off to the 
society of the good and the happy, while they themselves 
must herd with the ungodly, in ignominy and woe ? 

The separation of the whole human race into two 
classes, involves an association, on the part of the wicked, 
scarcely less soul-harrowing than the separation to which 
we have alluded. Let it be remembered that all the 
wicked are congregated together. What incongruities, 
what revolting opposites, what discordant elements are 
here thrown together ! The gay, the thoughtless flutterer 
in the sunshine of prosperity and fashion, while on earth, 
now stands, vis-a-vis, with the gloomy, malignant misan- 
thrope, just reeking, perhaps, from a deed of midnight 
assassination 1 The delicate, sentimental votary of taste 
and refinement, tete-a-tete, with the low, vulgar debauchee, 
hardly yet aroused from the lethargy of habitual brutal- 
ization. The man, who gloried in his spotless integrity 
and stainless honor, now the equal associate with liars, 
cheats and pick-pockets! We may not dwell upon a 
theme so revolting ; but, let those who deem it a point 
of honor and a measure necessary to the enjoyment of 
existence to be select in their associations, reflect that, in 
living "without God in the world," in neglecting con- 
formity to the requirements of the Gospel, they are 
securing to the most worthless, the basest, the vilest of 
human beings the questionless right of entre to their 
society while eternity shall endure. Let them remember 
this, and satisfy themselves how ruinous the speculation 
which purchases the pleasures of sin at such a cost ! 

The classification of mankind, into righteous and ivicked, 



574 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

is followed by an assignment of their respective positions, 
in relation to the Judge, indicative of His estimation 
and of the sentences which are to be pronounced upon 
them respectively. The righteous are placed on His right 
hand — the position of honor. The wicked, as a mark of 
ignominy, occupy a place on His left. Doubtless, on the 
left are found also the Devil and his angels — the first- 
born of rebellion — the instigators of man to transgression 
— their future associates in misery. We cannot help sup- 
posing that, over this dishonored and doomed host, will be 
seen clouds of coming vengeance, gathering and darkening 
every moment. Probably, too, deep, grumbling thunders, 
and flashes of lurid lightning, ever and anon, breaking 
from the impending storm-cloud, foretoken the resistless 
fury of the tempest, so soon to burst upon them with 
overwhelming ruin. We may also suppose that, sheer 
down from their position, yawns and approaches the fiery 
gulf, where tempest-tossed waves, of liquid sulphur, boil, 
and dash, and surge, hideously roaring for their prey. 
The slippery precipice seems gliding from under their feet 
Affrighted, horror-stricken, hopeless, they groan, out of the 
bitterness of their souls, All, all is lost! forever lost! 
Meantime, we imagine the righteous pavilioned in and 
canopied with light and glory. Above them shine the 
jeweled walls and magnificently beautiful habitations of 
the New Jerusalem; whose gates, of chastely beauteous 
pearl, invitingly open, exhibit to them the entrance to 
their future, glorious, eternal home — the "mansions, in 
their Father's house," prepared for them, by their munifi- 
cently provident elder Brother and Redeemer, the Lord 
Jesus Christ; while a broad, luminous highway, of easy 
ascent to their now buoyant natures, lies stretched out 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 575 

from those open gates to their honorable position near the 
throne of judgment. So, we suppose, are situated the 
two great divisions of the human race, when, 

5. The Judge arises to perform the final act of the 
judgment, in passing upon each class of mankind its 
appropriate sentence. We may well suppose that silence, 
hushed and profound, as the stillness which precedes and 
portends the bursting of the tempest, will settle down 
upon the expectant and deeply interested multitudes 
which stand on the right and the left hand of the Judge. 
If sound there be, in those vast assemblies, it must be the 
throb of some righteous heart, too full of rapture, in so 
near a prospect of eternal glory, to repress its exultant 
heavings, or the sigh, heart-piercing anguish, which bursts 
resistless from the pent-up bosom of some despairing 
sinner, awaiting his fearful destiny, now upon the point 
of being realized. Unless thus disturbed, the silence will, 
doubtless, be unbroken by the rustle of any movement, or 
even by a strongly-drawn respiration. Every eye will be 
turned toward the awe-inspiring Majesty of the Judge 
Supreme — every ear will be strained to catch each thrill- 
ing accent that shall flow from His doom-dealing lips. All 
lean toward the judgment-seat, in a trance of intensely 
interested expectation. And, now, turning to those on 
His right hand, and addressing them, in a voice sweeter 
than that of angel-melodies, He says: " Come, ye blessed 
of my Father! inherit the kingdom, prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world — well done, good and 
faithful servants! — enter ye into the joy of your Lord — 
I appoint unto you a kingdom; that, having overcome, ye 
may sit down with me, in my throne ; even as I overcame 
and am set down, with my Father ? in His throne: — for, ye 



576 * THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

have been faithful in a few things — in a very little — yc 
are they which have continued with me in my temptations 
— I was hungry, and ye gave me meat — I was thirsty, 
and ye gave me drink — I was a stranger, and ye took me 
in, naked, and ye clothed me — I was sick, and ye visited 
me — I was in prison, and ye came unto me — inasmuch as 
ye did it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, 
ye did it unto me." No address could excel this, in 
various and substantial interest. Almost every sentence, 
phrase and even word is emphatically cheering, encouraging 
and elevating in its tendency — "Come!" This invitation 
is from Him, who is the fountain of the highest honor, the 
perennial source of purest and most lasting enjoyment, — 
the center, to which all that is excellent in moral nature 
is attracted with resistless influence. To come to, or to 
enter into association with Him, is, at once, the greatest 
felicity, the highest dignity and the surest guarantee of 
noble and agreeable associations: — "Ye blessed of my 
Father ! " Approved of Him, whose wisdom cannot err, 
who accepteth no man's person, but always judge th 
righteously — not only approved by Him, but the objects 
of His benediction, and affianced in His inexhaustible 
resources for all blessing and all happiness. " Inherit the 
kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world" — prepared for those who have "approved them- 
selves unto God, by patient continuance in well-doing." 
The burden of their obligation, for coming blessedness, is 
thus condescendingly and kindly lightened, by a recog- 
nition of their immemorial right in the happiness and 
dignity to which they are exalted. It is their inheritance, 
long awaiting their majority to enter on possession. 
And, that inheritance is of regal dignity and of incalcu- 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 577 

lable value. It is a kingdom — an everlasting kingdom, 
which they shall share with their Sovereign Redeemer, 
reigning with Him forever and ever. They are to sit 
down with Him, in His throne — they are to enter into His 
joy. How laudatory, too, is this address : " Well done, 
good and faithful servants! Ye have continued with me 
in my temptations — ye fed me, when hungry: ye gave 
me drink, when I was thirsty: ye extended hospitality to 
me, when I was a stranger: ye clothed me, when I was 
naked: ye visited me, in affliction, and came to me, when 
I was a prisoner, under the world's dread ban. In my 
friends, my followers, ye dealt thus kindly with me." What 
praise could exceed that which is here bestowed upon the 
righteous, in the audience of an assembled universe? 
Praise, discriminating praise, for moral excellence recog- 
nized, and for devotion to the Saviour, acknowledged by 
Him. Praise, flowing from the lips of infallible truth, is 
honor indeed. How must the bosoms of the righteous 
swell with unutterable delight, when thus addressed by 
Infinite Excellence, in the presence of such an auditory! 
But, ah, how changed the countenance, the tone, the 
language of the Judge, when, turning to the wicked, on 
His left-hand, He denounces against them the horrible 
doom, which their iniquities have achieved for them ! 
How appalling His frown ! How soul-piercing His tone 
of righteous indignation ! How reprehensive and denun- 
ciatory His language ! " Depart from me, ye cursed ! 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his 
angels ; for, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat : I 
was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was a stranger, 
and ye took me not in — naked, and ye clothed me not : 
I was sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Foras- 
37 



578 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

much as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye did it not unto me." Every word, in this 
terrible sentence, is calculated to carry dismay and horror 
to the hearts of those against whom it is denounced. 
"Depart from me!" It is the blessed Jesus, who so 
loved these very sinners against their own souls as to die 
for them — who called them, with long-enduring patience, 
to come to Him and be saved from that destruction which 
now yawns to receive them — nay, who stood, with per- 
severing condescension and kindness, knocking at their 
door, soliciting admission, that He might bless and save 
them. It is this Jesus who now sternly and indignantly 
drives them into exile from His presence and favor 
" Ye cursed I" Ye righteously condemned ! Ye devoted 
rebels ! Ye anathematized of God J Ah ! 'twere dread- 
ful to be forever banished from Christ, the spring of joy, 
the source of honor, the center of all that is morally good 
in the universe ! But, how incalculably is the calamity 
enhanced by the exile being the object of Divine maledic- 
tion ! To lie under the curse of the All-good, the 
Almighty, the Eternal ! " Into everlasting fire !" Fear- 
ful doom ! Immortal, imperishable, the fiercest flame, the 
intensest heat may exert their utmost fury upon these 
victims of Divine Justice — may carry the most grinding 
torture along every nerve, but they can never induce 
insensibility, they can never consume the sufferer. Still 
capable of agony, and still the prisoners of the burning 
pit, eternity shall witness to their unmitigable anguish — 
shall hear, unceasingly, the cries and groans of their woe 
and of their despair. To add to the horror of this fright- 
ful doom, the human culprits are given distinctly to 
understand that, originally, no such fate was intended for 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 579 

them — that they are intruders upon the miserable inherit- 
ance "prepared for the Devil and his angels" — for those 
first transgressors of the holy law of God. To the sug- 
gestions of these evil beings, in preference to the kindly 
voice of the blessed Saviour, these human transgressors 
turned a willing ear — their counsel they followed ; and, 
now, they must follow them to their place of melancholy 
doom. The reasons assigned, for denouncing upon them 
this terrible sentence are, that they were wanting in 
benevolence to man, or in devotion to Christ. Alms may 
be given munificently, noble deeds of beneficence may be 
performed, without establishing any, the slightest, claim 
to a favorable award on the great day of retribution. On 
the other hand, great zeal, for the advancement of Christ 
to universal dominion in the earth, may fail of such an 
award ; but, where devotion to Christ induces beneficence 
to man — where "faith works by love, purifying the 
heart," and " creates the man in Christ Jesus unto good 
works," there will be found valid claims to Divine appro- 
bation, which will not fail to be recognized, in the judg- 
ment of the great day. One, or both of these being found 
wanting in those on the left-hand of the Judge, they are 
sentenced to " everlasting destruction from His presence 
and from the glory of His power," to dwell in miserable 
companionship with the Devil and his angels, in " ever- 
lasting burnings." 

Of the manner of judicial proceedings, and of the sen- 
tence which will be pronounced against the Devil and his 
angels, we have no distinct information — we only know 
that they are now "reserved in chains, under darkness, 
unto the judgment of the great day;" and, that, con- 
sequently, they will be present, on that awful occasion, to 



580 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

" receive their sentence, and begin their hell." We have 
also reason to believe that their audit will be after the 
righteous shall have been approved by the Judge; for, 
St. Paul interrogatively affirms that the saints shall 
"judge angels" — fallen and rebellious angels, doubtless; 
and, it is not to be supposed that, until they themselves 
have been judged and approved, will such honor and 
responsibility be conferred upon them. It was not 
important that we should know more of this matter ; and, 
to indulge in conjecture, on so grave a subject, where 
Infinite Wisdom has seen proper to withhold information, 
would be worse than idle. We know they will be judged 
righteously — that they must be condemned to everlasting 
perdition ; and, we have reason to believe that their con- 
demnation and assignment to punishment will close the 
judicial proceedings of this awful and eventful day. 

But, though the condemnation of the Devil and his 
angels, and their assignment to punishment shall close 
the judicial proceedings of the day of judgment, they do 
not conclude the deeply interesting business of the day. 
It remains for the various awards of the Judge to be car- 
ried into execution. This, it would seem, is first effected 
in the case of the wicked ; as, in the programme of this 
day's proceedings, it is said : " These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." 
Whether force will be required, in the execution of the 
sentence upon the wicked, we are not distinctly informed ; 
but, there are many intimations that it will be employed. 
In one place, the Judge is represented as commanding 
the ministers of justice, " Take ye the unprofitable servant, 
and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer 
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 581 

And, in the explanation of tbe parable of the Tares, the 
Saviour informs His disciples that the " Son of man shall 
send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His 
kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, 
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire." If force shall 
be required, it will be at hand ; for, awaiting the orders 
of the Judge, are the myriads of mighty angels, under 
the leading of their great captain, the archangel, Michael, 
for whom no enterprise, within the scope of Divine per- 
mission, can be supposed arduous. We think it probable 
that the sentence will be first executed upon the Devil 
and his angels. They were the first to rebel, they insti- 
gated man's transgression, from the days of Eden, to the 
consummation of all things. It is, therefore, reasonable 
that they should be the first to feel the infliction of the 
infamy and woe of eternal banishment from God, and of 
Incarceration in the bottomless pit. But, if they be the 
first, they are followed, in quick succession, by the rebel- 
lious of mankind. Thus is evil swept away into one dark 
province of the universe ; and the dreadful pit closes its 
mouth upon it, that the better portions of creation may 
no more be offended by its presence. We suffer not our 
imagination to follow the deep plunge of these unblest, 
into the regions of eternal woe. We would not, if we 
could, reveal the horrid secrets of their gloomy, miserable 
prison-house. The heart would faint under its survey. 

We turn, then, to the destiny of the righteous, at the 
right-hand of the Judge. From the judgment-seat, in 
conformity to the sentence of their Judge, they "go 
away into life eternal" — not into immortality of being 
and consciousness merely ; but, into the eternal fruition 
of God — the true life of moral nature, involving the 



582 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

purest and most exalted happiness of which that nature is 
susceptible. Preceded by their approving Judge — their 
Redeemer — their Saviour — their elder Brother, and 
accompanied by the myriads of heaven's first-born sons, 
they rise, buoyant with immortality, and attracted by 
strong affinity, to the capital of the universe — the dwell- 
ing-place of the Most High — the court of the Great 
Supreme ; and, there, with the good of every species and 
of all worlds, they will experience a perfect exemption 
from all evil, and enjoy, to the full extent of their utmost 
capacity, the happiness for which their constitutions prepare 
and dispose them. Of this happiness, we shall attempt 
no other description, except that they "shall be with 
Jesus, and shall see Him as He is," and that " God Him- 
self shall be with them, and shall be their God." 

What remains is to speak of the duration of the fates 
awarded in the day of judgment. They will be everlasting 
— eternal. Millions of ages, multiplied by each other, 
will bring no nearer a period of the woes of the damned, 
or of the joys of the blessed. Eternity still remains after 
the lapse of any cycle, the measure of their respective desti- 
nies. Dr. Young has strikingly represented this perpetuity 
of human doom, in the following highly poetical lines : — 

" Eternity, the various sentence past, 
Assigns the sever'd throng distinct abodes, 
Sulphureous or ambrosial. What ensues 1 
The deed predominant ! The deed of deeds ! 
Which makes a hell of hell, a heav'n of heav'n. 
The goddess, with determin'd aspect, turns 
Her adamantine keys, enormous size, 
Through Destiny's inextricable wards, 
Deep driving every bolt, on both their fates. 
Then, from the crystal battlements of heav'n, 
Down, down she hurls it, through the dark profound, 
Ten thousand, thousand fathoms, there to rust, 
And ne'er unlock her resolution more, 1 '— Night Thoughts. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 583 

We shall now close this Discourse, and the series to 
which it belongs, by some brief improvements on the sub- 
jects which have been under our consideration. We 
have attempted to establish the claim of the Scriptures, 
constituting the Old and New Testaments, as being 
Revelations from God. If we have succeeded in this 
attempt, we feel warranted in demanding for these Scrip- 
tures a degree of attention, respect and deference, to 
which no other document extant can lay any just claim. 
Not only because they are a revelation from God — a 
reason sufficient in itself to justify the demand in question 
— are they entitled to this distinction, but, also, because 
the matters revealed in them are of the highest concern- 
ment to every human being. Several of these important 
revelations are intended to inform man in regard to the 
earliest events that have a bearing upon human welfare. 
Others teach the relations subsisting between man and 
God — his Creator and Sovereign — those which exist 
among men, and those between man and his present and 
future of existence. If such be the revelations of the 
Scriptures — if those revelations are from God, and, there- 
fore, of unquestionable authority, how diligently should 
those Scriptures be studied 1 How profoundly should 
they be revered ! How sacredly should their require- 
ments be complied with ! And, how great the folly, and 
the sin of neglecting them — much more of treating them 
with contempt I He that scorns or even slights the 
Bible, is as if he destroyed the records of his ancestors — 
consumed in the flames his title-deeds to all permanent 
possessions, extinguished the light of his dwelling, and 
closed against himself every avenue of escape from 
poverty, misery and death. 



584 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

From these Scriptures, we have derived our subjects 
for discussion, in the foregoing series ; and on them we 
have exclusively relied for the means of understanding 
and representing those subjects in a proper manner. 
Other sources have been resorted to only as helps to our 
minds in understanding the teachings of those Scriptures. 
Our purpose has been to select subjects, not only intrin- 
sically important, but bearing such a relation to one 
another as that they should constitute, together, a system 
of fundamental biblical instruction. 

The Being, Nature and Character of God, and the rela- 
tion that man sustains to Him, are subjects of commanding 
interest with every considerate, reasonable being, whose 
moral nature is capable of religious influence. And, well 
they may be so! No subject is of so much intrinsic 
importance as that which includes a Deity related to the 
inquirer. But, we should never be satisfied with merely 
philosophical speculations in regard to the Deity, no mat- 
ter how grand or how interesting those speculations. We 
should aim at making all our investigations, into what 
regards the Divine Being, decisively practical in their 
character and tendency. He has placed Himself before 
man, and invited from him an attentive consideration of 
Himself, that the virtue of man may be promoted, and 
his happiness secured. And, for this purpose, no other 
moral influence can be equally effectual. His character 
is the sum of moral excellence, and His will is the law of 
holiness. His sovereignty and power are the efficient 
guarantees of the claims of righteousness upon moral 
agents — how, then, can we know God, without being 
morally tine better for our science? How important, 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 585 

therefore, that we should, above all things, seek to under- 
stand and know God! 

Creation imposes on the creature an obligation of ser- 
vice to the Creator, to the full extent of the capability 
bestowed in that creation; unless, indeed, there were a 
malignant purpose in that creation. In such a case, if 
such a case could exist, no such obligation would accrue; 
because the existence bestowed would not be a benefit, 
and onty benefits confer obligations. In the creation of 
the heavens and of the earth, of their inhabitants and of 
man, especially, lenevolence was clearly the leading motive. 
Wisdom and power, it is true, are strikingly manifest in 
these wonderful exhibitions of the Eternal Godhead: but, 
wisdom and power are manifestly exerted to subserve the 
purposes of benevolence. Hence, when the great work 
of creation was completed, the Mighty Performer pro- 
nounced the worlds He had made "very good." The 
creation of man, in particular, exhibited the benevolence 
of his Creator in a strong light; for, man was endued 
with ample capacities for enjoyment, animal, intellectual 
and moral — with a nature capable of indefinite improve- 
ment and development, and with an immortality of being, 
which laid out before him an endless career of improve- 
ment and happiness. Such being the case, how imperative 
the obligation on man to consecrate his whole capability 
to the service of his Creator! This obligation not only 
engrossed his whole capability, but must have run parallel 
with the whole course of his being, in all the circumstances 
in which his employment of moral agency might place 
him, even though, in those circumstances, the loss of moral 
power were included. If, by the abuse of moral agency. 



,586 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

moral power should be wholly destroyed, the obligation 
would so remain as that the party, so disqualified, if not 
responsible for the actions resulting from such disqualifi- 
cation, would be the subject of perpetual punishment, 
and justly, too, for the loss of moral power itself. How 
important, beyond comparison, must we, therefore, regard 
a strict compliance with the obligation of entire devotion 
to God! 

This obligation, though so binding and so important, 
could be disregarded and violated by man; for, man was a 
moral agent — empowered, as such, to choose between 
good and evil. To guard man, in his primeval innocence 
and simplicity, against abusing his moral power, God 
informed him of his ability to do it, admonished him against 
such abuse and warned him of the fearful consequences 
he should thereby incur. Strange! that a being, holy, 
upright and happy — so taught and so warned — should 
have done what was so contrary to his holy nature, and 
what he knew must work a forfeiture of his happiness, and 
incur all the unknown evils involved in death — the ter- 
rible penalty denounced against transgression. Whether 
man would, untempted from without, have violated his 
sacred obligation to his Creator, we know not, and can 
never know. But, we do know that, under the seductive 
promptings of that malignant spirit, who " kept not his 
first estate," as a pure angelic inhabitant of heaven, but, 
for his rebellion was cast out from God and happiness, 
man did violate that obligation; was thrust out from hap- 
piness, involved in guilt, corrupted in moral nature, and 
doomed to death — physical and eternal death. And, still, 
that infernal tempter plots and rages against man!. Still 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 587 

is he the enemy of God and man, and the destroyer of 
all who hearken to his wiles and yield to his influence ! 
Surely, then, It behoves all men to understand his history 
and his devices, that they may avoid his snares, and resist 
his allurements to sin. 

Man, in violation of his most sacred obligation, diso- 
beyed God — was guilty, depraved and condemned to ruin. 
God, nevertheless, still loved him — "so loved him, that 
He gave His Only-begotten Son," to be his Redeemer, by 
dying for him! How can man render a proper return for 
such love ? Every individual of the human race should 
say: "What shall I render unto the Lord, for all His 
benefits" — redeeming love especially — "towards me? I 
will take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name 
of the Lord." To induce a disposition of this kind, and 
to enable man to carry into effect the purpose here avowed, 
the Holy Ghost and needed grace are given, at the inter- 
cession of the risen and ascended Redeemer. What folly, 
what madness to "grieve that Spirit," to slight that grace! 
Nay, how promptly should we yield to the impulse of that 
Spirit! How diligently should we use that grace, so 
benevolently supplied! Our present and eternal welfare 
depends essentially upon our being " led by the Spirit," 
and upon our " growing in grace." 

By these alone can we " come to repentance and to the 
acknowledgment" or "belief of the truth" — to "repent- 
ance towards God, not to be repented of," and to belief 
of Gospel-truth — "faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." 
Without this repentance, the sinner must " perish." By 
this faith alone can he be justified, purified, rendered vic- 
torious over "the Devil, the world and the flesh." By the 



5B8 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT, 

influence of this faith only can he ever be saved, and 
come into possession of the "inheritance incorruptible, 
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away" — "eternal in 
the heavens." 

To urge us, the more effectually, to lay hold on eternal 
life, by repentance towards God and through faith in 
Christ Jesus, and to acquit ourselves, with diligent fidelity, 
of the high and sacred obligation of universal devotion 
to God, we are assured that we shall, each for him- 
self, "give an account of himself to God," and be 
"judged by Him according to our works," for which pur- 
pose, " He has appointed a day." If, then, " that awful 
day will surely come" — if we must "all stand before the 
judgment-seat of Christ" — if, there, "the secrets of all 
hearts shall be made manifest," and everv man receive 
"according to that he hath done, whether it be good, 
or whether it be evil," how should we improve every 
moment of our time, how should we task all our faculties, 
how should we press into our service all the grace and all 
the means within our reach, that we may "make our 
calling and election sure!" — that we may "lay up in 
store for ourselves a good foundation against the time to 
come ! " How aggravated and unutterable the ruin we 
shall achieve for ourselves, if we "neglect the great 
salvation," offered us in the Gospel! How bitter the self- 
reproach, with which we must eternally regard ourselves, 
if, "for the pleasures of sin, for a season" only, we cut 
ourselves off from " the recompense of the reward," which 
glitters at the end of " the race set before us ! " We are 
conjured by the deep and unutterable gloom of the " hor- 
rible pit," to which sin certainly -conducts her votaries; by 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 589 

the joys u which are at God's right hand forevermore," to 
which we are urged by the invitations of the Gospel , by 
the importunate solicitations of the Holy Spirit, and by 
the agonies of dying Love on Calvary, to close with the 
overtures of salvation, and to " walk worthy of God to all 
pleasing, that we may lay hold on eternal life." Oh, let 
us hearken to these united pleadings with us to secure 
our eternal well-being I And, may the " riches of grace, 
in Christ Jesus," prevail for our eternal salvation! Amen! 



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